I 



I 



I 



1 



THE 



LAND OF PROMISE 



otea of a %rtit|j-|ottrnej) 



FROM 



BEERSHEBA TO SIDON. 



B Y 



HORATIUS BONAR, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF "THE DESERT OF SINAI," "NIGHT OF WEEPING," u MORNING 
OF JOY." "HYMNS OF FAITH AND HOPE." ETC. 



NEW YORK: 
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

5 3 BROADWAY. 
1858. 



PEEFACE. 



I NOW finish the notes of my eastern journey. They 
are the same in kind as those of the former volume. 

I have been short in describing well-known places, 
and longer in my notes of those not so often visited. 
Hence the sea-plain, from Sidon southward, has been 
briefly noticed ; while Beersheba, the Interior of the 
great Mosque at J erusalem, the Quarries underneath the 
city, and the Mounds of ashes outside, have been taken 
up more at length. Some topographical discussions, 
which would have broken up the narrative, have been 
cast into an Appendix. The list of Books and the Index 
I meant to have made fuller, but have been staid by the 
unlooked-for growth and size of the volume. 

Lest I should be thought to have but written over 
again what has been better done already by others, I may 
say this, that Palestine bears to be often visited, and can 
afford to be spoken of for the hundredth time without 



iv 



PREFACE. 



yielding less to one that may come after. Each new 
study of its history or geography, if rightly guiding it- 
self, 'will lay open new formations, and take us down into 
new deposits. Its great events have not erased each 
other, as is often the case in other histories. They have 
not come like wave on wave, or like the ripple on the 
sand, effacing all that has been before. They have formed 
so many separate strata, each of which remains for ever, 
ready to give up its story to any one that will search. 
Nor in getting possession of these fossils, do we handle 
dead matter or useless relics. Each of them, so soon as 
touched, seems to come alive again, and to speak to us 
with its own fulness and energy and greatness. These 
old facts are all charged with divine thoughts ; and that 
which is divine cannot die ; or if it pass into that state 
which men call age or death, it yet fails not to retain 
the vitality of unforgotten youth ; and he that casts 
himself upon it receives into his soul the pulse and 
quickening of its mighty life, as the dead Israelite when 
he touched the bones of the buried prophet. 



Kelso, December 1. 1857. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEK I. 

Page 

BIR-ES-SEBA ABRAHAM THE ESHEL THE WELLS VER- 
DURE RUINS THE OLD TOWN TRIBE OF SIMEON- 
DESOLATION HOPE, ..... 1 



CHAPTER II. 

SIMEON AND JUDAH NEIGHBOURING CITIES FLOWERS 

RUINS WINDINGS ASCENT DHAHARIYAH QUA- 
RANTINE VIEW SHEIKH FIRST NIGHT IN PALES- 
TINE, ........ 23 



CHAPTER III. 

DHAHARIYAH THE SHEIKH AND HIS DOLLARS THE HILL 

COUNTRY THE B ALLUT CYCLAMEN TERRACES 

HEWN BLOCKS CITIES OF THE ANAKIM ADJOINING 

CITIES RUINS DILBEH DAUMEH APPROACH TO 

HEBRON HEBRON, . . . . .42 



CHAPTER IV. 



HEBRON LAZARETTO MACHPELAH MOSLEM BURYING- 

OROUND KURMUL NEBI-LUT HAMMAM FORENS 

TEFFUH BIR-SHIRAH. . 



69 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER, V. 

Page 

hebron machpelah the streets manufactures 

pools road to jerusalem solomon^ pools 

Solomon's gardens — aqueduct — bethlehem — 

SHEPHERD^ PLAIN ER-RAM RACHEl's TOMB 

BEIT- J AL AH REPHAIM JERUSALEM, . . .88 



CHAPTER VI. 

JERUSALEM SERVICE IN THE MISSION CHURCH WALK 

ALONG THE WALLS ST STEPHEN^ GATE GETHSE- 

MANE ROAD TO BETHANY TOMBS LARGE STONES 

IN THE CITY WALL MOONLIGHT MORNING WALK 

MOUNT OF OLIVES MOUNT ZION PLACE OF WAILING 

REMAINS OF ARCH ACELDAMA, . . .125 



CHAPTER VII. 

HILL OF EVIL COUNSEL SYNAGOGUES SEPHARDIM KA- 
RAITE HINNOM BIR EYUB THE MOUNT OF OFFENCE 

KING'S GARDENS SELWAN UM ED-DERAJ GETH- 

SEMANE MOUNT OF OLIVES— A MOONLIGHT WALK, 150 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SABBATH SUNRISE BETHLEHEM URTASS BETHLEMITE 

HAWKERS RAIN MOSQUE ROCK TEMPLE OF SOLO- 
MON ALTAR THE RABBI ECCENTRICITIES THE 

CONSUL, . . . . . . .176 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



CHAPTER IX. 

Page 

RAIN AND WANT OF RAIN MOSQUE REVISITED MORN- 
ING WALK BIRKET ES-SULTAN BIR EYUB EXCUR- 
SION HILLS OF ASHES TOMBS OF THE JUDGES 

SCOPUS OLIVET BETHANY MR NICOLAYSON BIR- 
KET EL-MAM ILL A JEREMIAH^ GROTTO ACRA 

CONSUl/s OLIVE PLANTATION LITERARY SOCIETY 

VISIT TO ADULLAM MEETING OF JEWS GETHSE- 

MANE JEHOSHAPHAT NEB1 SEMWIL EL JIB, 214 

CHAPTER X. 

DIOCESAN SCHOOL DEPARTURE FOR MARS ABA WADI- 

KEDRUN MARSABA DEAD SEA THE GHOR 

WHIRLWINDS JORDAN AIN HAJLAH JERICHO— 

AIN-ES-SULTAN RETURN TO JERUSALEM, . . 267 

CHAPTER XL 

BILLS OF ASHES QUARRIES TOMBS OF KINGS RAIN 

LAST SABBATH IN JERUSALEM GETHSEMANE, . 312 

CHAPTER XII. 

LEPERS WALK TO BETHANY LEAVING JERUSALEM 

SCOPUS SHAPHAT EL-BIREH BETIN MOONLIGHT 

JOURNEY AIN YEBRUD AIN HARAMIYAH MR 

beddome's narrative, ..... 335 
CHAPTER XIII. 

AIN EL-HARAMIYAH SINGIL TURMUS-AYAH SILUN 

lubban — Jacob's well — nablus — samaria — 

HANUB — JEWIN, .... 358 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEK XV. 

Page 

NAZARETH TABOR VIEW DESCENT TIBERIAS LAKE 

SAIL A D VENTURE , . . . . .401 



CHAPTER XVI. 

AIN EL-MELLAHAH WATERS OF MEROM TRIBUTARY 

STREAMS BANIAS TRANSFIGURATION HILL TELL- 

EL-KADI THE HASBANY KALAT ESH-SHUK1F 

NEBUTIYEA SIDON SAREPTA TYRE ACRE 

KAIFA— CARMEL JAFFA, .... 448 



APPENDIX. 

I. NOTES ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM, . .481 

II. TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS, . . . . .514 

INDEX, . . . . . . , . 529 

TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED, , . . .561 



r 



I 



I 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



CHAPTER L 

BIIl-ES-SEBA ABRAHAM THE ESHEL THE WELLS VERDURE RUINS 

THE OLD TOWN TRIBE OF SIMEON DESOLATION HOPE. 

Bir-es-Seba, February 15. 1856. — We have crossed 
the rough bed of the dried-up stream which bounds the 
desert on the north, and we now pass from " the desert 
of Beersheba" to Beersheba itself.* This was Israel's 
nearest way into "the land/' just as it was ours; but 
they were " led about" through the borders of Edom and 

* I do not understand the position which Lieut. Van de Velde assigns 
to Beersheba, nor do I recognise, in his description, the wells which we 
saw. He says, " at nine we reached the wells of Beersheba . . . they 
are five in number, narrow at the opening and deep . . « they form a 
group of wells in the shallow dry bed of a stream called Wady-es-Seba" 
(Syria and Palestine, vol. ii. p. 136). These Jive small wells in the bed of 
the wady, are quite different from the two large wells, on the bank above 
the wady, and visible from a considerable distance. Lieut. Van de Velde 
must have crossed the wady further down, and so missed the real Bir-es- 
Seba. See Strauss' Sinai and Golgotha, p. 144 ; Fisk's Pastor's Memorial, 
p. 213 ; Robinson's Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 204 ; and lastly, Dr 
Stewart's recent work, The Khan and the Tent, p. 214. Eugene Roger, 
the Jesuit missionary, says of "Bersabee," est appelle des Arabes El-bit 

A 



2 



BEEHSHEBA. 



Moab, with the swollen Jordan to cross at last, instead 
of this shallow wady, over which the old man might have 
gone with his staff, and the little child have passed with 
ease, holding by the hand of its mother. 

What may be the state of this river when in flood, or 
how long it may retain its waters, we have no means of 
knowing. It looks more like a genuine river-bed 
than any Sinaitic wady, and I have seen some of our 
northern brooks almost as thoroughly summer-dried 
as this. There is little sand in it, and the well-rounded 
stones, which pave its entire width, indicate a process of 
rolling and smoothing, which could hardly be effected by 
the hasty rush of a three days' flood from these heights 
on our east. We leap or scramble down the southern 
bank, cross the bed, and mount the opposite side, in a few- 
minutes. The rise of its banks is only a few feet ; but 
they are in some places sharply cut away by the force of 
the stream as it finds its way westward, through Wady- 
es-Suny to the Mediterranean. It may have been some- 
what widened and deepened since Abraham and Isaac 
used to cross and recross it ; but it has not been much 

Abouna Calib, le puy de nostre pere Abraham, autrement nomme le puy 
de jurement." Is Calib a misprint for Calilov Khalil ? (La Terre Saincte, 
ou description topographique tres particulier des saincts lieux, &c.,p. 159.) 
He makes Beersheba four leagues east from what he calls Ziklag, and Ziklag 
five leagues from Gaza, — in all, nine leagues from Gaza or twenty-seven 
miles, the exact distance given by Dr Kitto. "The site of the wells is 
nearly midway between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the Mediter- 
ranean at Raphaea, or twenty-seven miles S.E. from Gaza, and about the 
same, S. by W., from Hebron." 



Abraham's grove. 



3 



changed otherwise, I suppose, or if it did change in the 
day s of Israel or the Romans, it has now gone back to 
its old state, so that we see it now just as it was when 
the patriarchs first pitched their tents upon its margin. 

All is now bare, with only a few low shrubs to relieve 
the tameness. It was no doubt this bareness that led 
Abraham to plant the " grove" mentioned in Genesis, 
" where he called on the name of Jehovah the everlast- 
ing God" (xxi. 33).* As a shadow from the heat he 
planted it ; and to one who had no temple with roof or 
wall or porch to shelter him, such a shade was needful, 

* The word does not strictly mean " a grove." The expression is, 
" Abraham planted an eshel" — that is, a tree or trees of that name. It wa3 
under an eshel that Saul abode "in Gibeah, in Raman" (or "in Gibeah on 
a height"), 1 Sam. xxii. 6. It was under an eshel in Jabesh that the burned 
bones of Saul and his sons were buried (1 Sam. xxxi, 13). The eshel 
must have been a lofty branching tree, fit for shade, and therefore 
chosen by Abraham and Saul. It seems to have been not so suitable for 
the lower and warmer regions of the desert as for the high places of the 
land. So that it could not be a tar/a (or tamarisk) which Abraham 
brought up from the desert, but some much larger tree which he had 
brought down from the higher regions around Mamre where he had already 
known its shade. Do Saulcey mentions a wady on the south-east of the 
Dead Sea, called Wady-el-Esal, which he says takes its name from " the 
thorn-trees and bushes" which cover it (Journey round the Dead Sea, vol. 
i. p. 294, 480). The likeness between the Hebrew Eshel and the Arabic 
Esal is worth the noticing, as suggesting that the former was some thorny 
tree, and inviting us to ask whether it might not just he the prickly oak so 
common around Hebron and the hill country of the south, the same as is 
still pointed out as Abraham's oak. If the tamarisk of -Egypt and the 
desert be the myrica of the classics, the contrast between it and the eshel 
of Scripture will strike forcibly those who remember the "humiles 
myricse'' of Virgil, the " fragiles" and " tenues myricae" of Ovid. 



4 



Abraham's geoye. 



and as such, not forbidden by God. Yet when it be- 
came the haunt of evil, the seat of vile rites and deeds 
of darkness, the grove was prohibited as a place of wor- 
ship. Neither in the tabernacle nor the temple was 
God's altar placed in the shade, but stood out, without 
a roof, under the bright sun, and all the worship there 
was by day, not by night. It is to superstition that we 
owe the " dim religious light/' and the same uneasy 
conscience that drove Adam into the thickets of Para- 
dise, still makes the unpurged conscience love to haunt 
the gloom, as if darkness were more congenial than light, 
or as if the rueful look and the shaded brow might help 
in appeasing an impropriated God.* 

There is no grove, no " eshel" for us now to sit 
under ; but this matters not, save that the spot has 
thus one association less, and looks more like the desert 
than the land of promise, more like what it was when 
Abraham came to it than when he left it. It is still his 
country, but it is bald and peeled. Youth and manhood 
are gone, and it is the decrepitude of age that lies before 
us. We sit down on one of the large, well-worn troughs 
that girdle the two old wells, and seem as if springing out 
of the stony soil. The day is hot, though not scorching, 
and it is still little beyond morning. But we have been 
walking for more than an hour over uneven, though not 
rocky, ground, and we are fain to rest here for half-an- 

* Not only had Abraham his altar here, but Isaac also (Gen. xxvi. 25) ; 
and the rabbis have not failed to observe that this is the only altar that 
is said to have been built by Isaac. 



MEMORIES OF THE PATRIARCHS. 



5 



hour, leaving our men and camels to take the road to 
Dhakarieyeh, which we see them doing, straggling across 
the water-course, some two hundred yards to the east. 
As our sheikh remains with us we have no fear of losing 
our way. He can tell us nothing about the place, or the 
wady, or the wells, but he will be a protection against 
the intrusion of the FellaMn (peasants) who are begin- 
ning to draw round us, staring and wondering, and 
who but for his presence might shew sufficient rudeness 
both of speech and deed. 

There is no view on any side, beyond a mile or two ; 
nor is there ought remarkable or attractive in the half- 
stony, half-verdant undulations that stretch themselves 
around. There is nothing repulsive or chilling, as in 
the desert ; but there is not much that is winning, save 
in the memories of " the old age/' that seem to rise up 
from every knoll and hollow. These swells contain " no 
fabled hero's ashes/' but they are the undoubted scene 
of more memorable doings than the " broad Hellespont" 
or "the desert of old Priam's pride" recalls. The long 
grey vale of Bir-es-Seba tells a story as romantic, and 
more fruitful in faith and goodness than the plains of 
" wind-swept Ilion." 

While these green knolls spread out to the west, 
there rises, to the north, a very gradual slope, appa- 
rently terminating in a low table-land, which, after a 
little, passes into the hill country of southern Palestine. 
The circle round the wells is less bare than that beyond, 
and shews a carpet of fine, short, but not thick, grass, 



6 



THE WELLS. 



telling us very decidedly that we axe now in a region 
where flocks might graze, and which man might till. 
There is hardly a desert-shrub to be seen, while, in 
addition to the grass, we see here and there the leaf of 
the crocus and lily shooting up amid the small stones 
of this rain-baked soil. Round this western well are 
five large stone-troughs, some full of water, others 
empty, some much worn and broken, others nearly 
entire, at a distance of three or four yards from the 
edge of the well. The well itself is about five feet and 
a half in diameter, just the usual size in our country ; 
but we had not the means of measuring its depth, 
which, however, Dr Robinson gives as forty-two feet. It 
looks very old, and has been most carefully built ; but 
the stones round the top-edge are polished and worn 
into deep grooves by the action of the ropes. This 
gives them a curious appearance, as if frilled or fluted 
all round. The water is clear and good. The Mr 
itself is as old as Abraham ; and this is probably the 
very well dug by him (Gen. xxi. 30) ; but the present 
masonry of the well is more uncertain. It may be 
Abrahamic ; it may be J ewish ; it may be Roman ; it 
may be Christian ; it may be Mahommedan : who 
shall say which? Certainly it is not the work ot 
Bedaween. 

The other well, which lies above a hundred yards 
eastward, is considerably larger, and measures nearly 
ten feet in diameter. Dr Robinson gives, as its depth 
to the water-surface, forty-four feet and a half. Round 



THE WELLS. 



7 



it are nine troughs, much like those of the western 
well ; but there must have been originally ten, as the 
circle at one part is broken, and a blank appears. The 
lip-stones of this well are, like those of the other, deeply 
grooved, and the circle round it is clothed with the 
same short sward, and adorned with the not unfrequent 
wild-flower. Its water is good, and, I suppose, peren- 
nial ; for these two wells are not mere cisterns or tanks, 
but " springs whose waters fail not/' * 

More than once have these questions passed before 
me, in connection with this place, — How comes it that 
there are two wells, whereas the Old Testament narra- 
tive seems to note but one ? Why is the name Beer, in 
the singular, not Herein in the dual, seeing there are two 
wells ? Why has the Arabic given us, as its name for 
the place, Bir-es-Seba, the well of the seven, not the 
well of the oath ? 

As to the two wells, it seems not unlikely that the 
one is Abraham's and the other Isaac's. The smaller 
one was first dug by Abraham, and sufficed for him and 
his smaller household and flocks. The larger one was 
added by Isaac, as needed by the increasing numbers 
of his family, and, perhaps, the gathering population of 
the place. The Old Testament narrative does not say 
that there were tivo wells ; but it makes it likely that 

* Isa. lviii. 11. In the Hebrew it is " where waters do not lie," or 
deceive. The Septuagint IpX/Trsv, the Vulgate "deficient," and the 
English ' ' fail," all come short of the original, which so vividly presents 
the idea of deception and promise breaking. 



8 



ABRAHAM AND ISAAC. 



such was the case : — " Isaac's servants came and told 
him concerning the well which they had digged" (Gen. 
xxvi. 32), shewing that Isaac, as well as Abraham, digged 
a well. The Arabs have remembered Abraham's seven 
ewe lambs, and so called it " the well of the seven." 
So that the name belongs properly to Abraham's, not 
to Isaac's well. The western well was, in all likelihood, 
Abraham's. It is much the smaller of the two, and, 
in the course of a few years, was found insufficient 
for the rapidly increasing household of Isaac, who, 
therefore, when he " waxed great and went forward, 
and had possession of flocks and possession of herds, 
and great store of servants" (Gen. xxvi. 13), required 
an additional, as well as a larger well. As, there- 
fore, the western well is Abraham's, so the eastern is 
Isaac's. Here, then, it was that Isaac saw the hea- 
venly vision in which God shewed himself to him, when 
he was resting on this spot after the vexing strifes 
with the Philistines. " And he went up from thence to 
Beersheba. And J ehovah appeared unto him the same 
night, and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father : 
fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and 
multiply thy seed, for my servant Abraham's sake. 
And he built an altar there, and called upon the name 
of Jehovah, and stretched out his tent there : and there 
Isaac's servants digged a well," * (Gen. xxvi. 23-25). 

* The Jews say that there were two places here of the name of Beer- 
sheba,— one referred to in Abraham's history, the other in Isaac's. 
(Bashlam, cited by De Sola on Gen. xxvi. 23.) This is countenanced by 



RUINS OF BEERSHEBA. 



9 



Broken pottery is strewed on all sides, but in very 
small pieces, which are of various colours. That much 
of this is ancient, one need not doubt, though the frag- 
ments of Sarah's pitchers have doubtless long since 
crumbled into dust. But all of it is not ancient ; for 
the inhabitants of the district still use earthenware, as 
well as skins, just as they did when Abraham put the 
earthen jug on Hagar's shoulders on this very spot, and 
sent her away into the desert (Gen. xxi. 14). Close at 
hand, to the north, loose stones are lying about in great 
numbers, though not of large size. They are not the 
natural debris of the underlying rocks, but are evidently 
artificial, both in shape and position. They cover a 
considerable stretch of ground, looking very desolate, 
and with nothing of life amongst them, save that of the 
small grey lizards, which are making free with them for 
shade and lodging. They are the ruins of Beersheba. 

After remaining here for some time, and submitting 
patiently to be watched and gazed at by a dozen of 
fierce and filthy fellahin, of whose company we cannot 
rid ourselves, we move slowly away. Our Sheikh 
beckons us on, as he does not like these Arabs of Wady- 

Josh. xix. 2, where "Beersheba, and Sheba, and Maladah," are noted as 
three adjoining towns. Eeil comes to much the same conclusion (on 
Josh. xix. 2). Reland's conjecture, that the Skema of Josh. xv. 26 is 
the same as the Sheba of xix. 2, is doubtful, though it is countenanced 
by the reading of the Septuagint in the latter passage, where the name 
is given as 2a/xoecc. Yet, in xv. 26, that version gives us 2aA£&ad, 
instead of Shema. 



10 



RUINS OF BEERSHEBA. 



es-Seba, and wishes us beyond their reach. He makes 
signs to us that we should rise to go. This we are very 
willing to do, as we have thoroughly gone over the 
whole ground, and surveyed the scene, comparing the 
present with the past, the baldness of what we see 
with the fresh verdure that refreshed the eyes of the 
patriarchs ; yon filthy fellah, with the mighty Abraham 
or the gentle Isaac ; yon ragged urchin-waif of Wady 
Ararah, with the archer of Paran (Gen. xxi. 20, 21). 

We now leave the w^ady and the wells, as noon is 
coming over us, and reminding us of the five hours' ride, 
or rather climb, still before us. We ascend to the ruins 
which lie close at hand, commencing a little above 
the level of the wells. They spread along the rising- 
ground for a considerable distance to the west, and 
stretch northward also upon the low table-land, of which 
the slight aclivity leading up from the wells is the com- 
mencement.* We saw distinct traces of houses, with 
hewn stones scattered here and there, and fragments of 
pillars. These last seemed to us post-Roman, and re- 
minded us of the relics of Christian buildings which we 
had already met with at Feiran and Ruhaibeh. They 
probably belong to the same age. 

* " Upon the neighbouring hill lie widely-scattered ruins. The foun- 
dation-walls of a town, and the floors of several Roman bathing-rooms, 
still in existence, prove the place to have been of considerable importance," 
(Strauss' Sinai and Golgotha, p. 140). This German is one of the few who 
have gone this way. He j assed up by Aujeh (which he speaks of as 
Augustopolis) RuLaibeh, Khulasah, to Blr-es.Seba, as we had done ; but 
his narrative is very brief. 



DATE OF THE RUINS. 



11 



These ruins straggle widely over the low knolls that 
mottle this tract towards the west. Part of the debris 
is, as we have noticed, Christian. Part of it is Roman. 
But much of it may go back to a greater antiquity. 
We do not know in what age Beersheba began to be 
built upon. The patriarchs had nothing here but their 
tents ; and, after the death of Isaac, when Jacob took 
up his dwelling in the more northern districts of the 
land, it was probably left without a settled occupant, till 
Israel took possession of Canaan, and first Judah, then 
Simeon, received this city as their inheritance. Then, 
at least, if not before, round these two wells there rose 
up a town which took up the traditional name, and 
handed it on to ages. Yet it is quite possible that the 
Philistines, or some southern tribe, may have raised a 
town here, in the interval between Jacob and Joshua, 
and Beersheba may be one of " the great and goodly 
cities which they (Israel) builded not/'in which were "the 
houses full of good things, which they filled not, and wells 
digged, which they digged not ; vineyards and olive-trees, 
which they planted not/' (Deut. vi. 11, Josh. xxiv. 13). 

Round the town grew up smaller hamlets and de- 
pendencies, at least in the later, if not the earlier ages 
of Israel's history. For we read of " Beersheba and the 
villages thereof/' or, according to the Hebrew, " the 
daughters thereof"* (Neh. xi. 27). But mother and 
daughters have now passed away ; and it is only the 
place of their ashes that we see. Thus " empty, and 
void, and waste" has the land become. The old Greek 



12 



IDOLATRY AXD JUDGMENT. 



poet makes Philoctetes speak of himself as but " the 
shadow of smoke,"* and so might these stony hills be 
called but " the ruins of a ruin/' 

Across and across these plains had the Philistine 
tribes once passed. Then came the patriarchs. Then 
" the judges" were here, in the days of Samuel, for he 
made his sons "judges in Beersheba" (1 Sam. viii. 2) ; 
and it was here that they turned aside after lucre, and 
took bribes, and perverted judgment, Elijah was here, 
in his solemn march from the extreme north to the 
farthest south ; for, judged by the time that it occupied, 
his journey to Horeb looks more like a march than a 
flight. The idolatries of Israel had their temples here, 
for the south as well as the north had revolted from the 
temple of Jerusalem ; and Simeon as well as Ephraim 
had set up an altar of his own.-)* Sitting here one calls 
to mind the awful words : — 

" Seek not Bethel, 
And enter not into Gilgal, 
And pass not to Beersheba," (Amos v. 5.) 

And as the sin of Israel, in listening to the oracles of 
this idolatry, had leavened the land from Dan to Beer- 
sheba (Benjamin and Judah only excepted) so is the 
judgment to overflow. 
11 Behold! 

The days are coming, saith Jehovah of Hosts, 
That I will send a famine on the land ; 

* XOCrfVOV 6'/Ja. Sophocles, Phil. 

+ u The high places of Isaac." Amos vii. 9. 



DESOLATION. 



13 



Not a famine of bread, 

Nor a thirst for water, 

But of hearing the words of Jehovah. 

And they shall wander from sea to sea, 

And from the north even to the east shall they go to and fro, 

To seek the word of Jehovah, 

And they shall not find it. 

In that day, 

The fair virgins and the young men 

Shall faint for thirst. 

They who swear by the sin of Samaria, 

And they who say, 

Thy God., O Dan, liveth, 

And the way (idol) of Beersheba liveth ; 

Even they shall fall, 

And shall not rise for ever." (Amos viii. 11-14.) 

These poor ruins, do they not shew how utterly the 
idolaters have "fallen ;" — the idol and the worshipper, the 
dwelling and the temple ; so that the bare scene around, 
where only the black tent is seen, carries the thought 
back at once to Abraham and his brighter days, over- 
leaping the intermediate ages as if they had not been. 

Yet it is with some difficulty that one conforms to 
common usage, and calls these low heaps of debris 
ruins. In the literal sense of the Latin mince, things 
fallen to pieces, or the Hebrew Horbah, desolation, we 
may name them so ; but they fall considerably below 
what we commonly understand by ruins. They are 
certainly the remains of what was once a city or a 
village ; but much in the same way as the mould of the 
churchyard is the residuum of what once was flesh and 



14 



TRIBE OF SIMEON. 



bone. Accustomed as we are to ruins such as those of 
Rome, or Athens, or Palmyra, we feel as if there ought 
to be some other name devised for the bleached and 
sifted debris of Beersheba, or Rama, or Shiloh. Syria is 
a region of remains, rather than of ruins, so thoroughly 
has desolation done its work. From the wells of Bir-es- 
Seba to the roots of Jebel-esh-Sheikh, it is one vast 
stretch of rubbish ; in the valleys, on the slopes, on the 
hill-tops. Hardly anywhere has there been left one 
stone upon another. Mounds of debris there are every- 
where ; more than this scarcely anywhere in all the land. 

This is Simeon's territory, ceded to them by Judah ; 
but the Simeonites are gone, scattered over earth ; and 
these poor Arabs whom we have just left are no re- 
presentatives of that great tribe which quitted Egypt 
with nearly sixty thousand men, " able to go forth to 
war/' (jSTum. i. 23).* Their seventeen towns may not 
be all equally desolate with this, but not a Simeonite 
anywhere remains. The sons of Leah, like the children 
of Rachel, " are not." Their princes and mighty men, 
Shelumiel (Num. x. 19), Shaphat (xiii. 5), and Shemuel 
xxxiv. 20), with their children's children, have passed 
away. Jacob has no one to personate him here. 

14 Surely, thus saith Jehovah, 
Behold ! 

I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once ; 
Yea, I will distress them, 

That they might find it so (my thrcatenings true)." (Jer. x.18.) 

* Their number at the second census, before entering the land, was re- 
duced to 22,000. 



LATER HISTORY. 



15 



They have been " slung out/' till the land is left tenant- 
less. Could some old dweller in Beersheba, of the days 
of Joshua or David, rise up from one of these hillocks 
and look on the scene on which we are looking, might 
he not say, 

" My tent is spoiled, 
Yea, all my cords are broken ; 
My children are gone forth of me. 
Yea, they are not ! 

There is none to stretch forth my tent any more. 
Or to set up my curtains." (Jer. x. 20.) 

Under the Bomans, Beersheba was still a fort of some 
strength ; — one of the long line of strongholds that 
stretched from Banias in the far north, almost to the 
desert of Et-Tih in the south. In Jerome's time it was 
still a village ; and even in Maundeville's day (a.d. 1322), 
"some of the churches" of what had been "a very fair 
and pleasant town of the Christians/' still remained. 
But of Jew, or Roman, or Christian, there is now no 
representative, and of churches and forts nothing re- 
mains save these bald hillocks and scattered stones. 

The first picture of the land which thus presented 
itself to us on our entrance on it, at the extreme south, 
was that of solitude and desolation. How truly had 
the vision snoken, 

" I will set the land a desolation, and a desolation ; 
Yea, the pomp of her strength shall cease, 
And the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, 
That none pass through.. 



16 



DESOLATION. 



Then shall they know that I am Jehovah, 

When I have set the land a desolation, and a desolation." 

(Ezek. xxxiii. 28, 29.) 

Passing from Beersheba to Dan,* the traveller's eye 
sees this one thing — desolation. And the word means 
much ; — silence, wasteness, and astonishment, all in one. 
Egypt was to be "a desolation/' (Joel iii. 19). Nineveh 
was to be "a desolation/' (Zeph. ii. 13). Babylon was 
to be " a desolation/' (Jer. li. 26). But it is only of the 
land of Israel and of Edom that this double form of 
word is used (Ezek. xxxv. S). One shadow was not 
enough, there must be two. One flood was not enough, 
there must be two. And it is quite a visible desola- 
tion. Paradise is now desolate, but where is it ? Its 
blossom has gone up as dust. Sodom is desolate, but 
what eye has seen it ? The bitter waters hide its hate- 
fulness. But Israel's ruin is spread out before the eye, 
that all may look upon it. The green turf does not 
cover the " dry bones" that are heaped up everywhere 
in this " open valley" of the dead (Ezek. xxxvii. 2). 

* " From Dan to Beersheba," was the ancient form of speech. But 
after the revolt of the ten tribes, when the north border of Benjamin be. 
came the terminating line of the kingdom, we have, of course, a change. 
Jehoshaphat "went out through the people from Beersheba to Mount 
Ephraim" (2 Chron. xix. 4). We read, too, of Josiah defiling the high places 
where the priests had burnt incense " from Geba to Beersheba," (2 Kings 
xxiii. 8). The limits of the tribe of Judah are said to be "from Beer- 
sheba to the valley of Hinnom" (Neh. xi. 30). When Hezekiah sends 
out his messengers the old landmarks are resumed. "They established 
a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even 
to Pan," (2 Chron. xxx. 5). 



EESTOEATION. 



17 



But the penalty exhausts itself, and the reversal of 
the long attainder comes at last. 

" Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, 
Nor thy land be any more termed desolate." (Isa. lxii. 4.) 

The curse that has been written on rock, hill, plain, and 
city, gives place to the blessing which shall yet more 
legibly be written all over the same. For it cannot be 
that the evil is a literality, and the good but a figure ; 
or that the curse is for one people, and the blessing for 
another. It is Israel that has been scattered, and it is 
Israel that shall be gathered ; and if righteous judg- 
ment has spoken out in the former, shall not faithful 
!.ove give utterance to its fulness in the latter ? "I 
was wroth with my people ; I have polluted their in- 
heritance" (Isa. xlvii. 6) ; and it is this once sacred but 
now polluted inheritance on which we are now treading. 
But the soil of this land holds in it what no other does, 
the blood of the Son of God ; and that blood which has 
hitherto lain on it only to defile and condemn it, shall 
put forth its power to cleanse. That which the old hymn 
sings of in reference to earth shall be found specially 
true of this "holy land/' 

" At laetius quanto obtulit 
Scse Patri spectaculum, 
Ccelestis Agni candido, 
Ablutus orbis sanguine." 

The restoration, or, if one may use the word, repatria- 
tion of Israel, and the healing of their land, seem things 

B 



18 THE JEWS. 

which are necessary not merely to verify certain ancient 
prophecies, but to account for much that is otherwise 
unaccountable, in the past history and present condition 
of that people. The desolation of their land might not, 
of itself, intimate much, or offer any serious puzzle. 
For Egypt, Chaldea, and many parts of Asia Minor lie 
as desolate as Palestine. But the peculiarity lies in 
this, that we have a people without a country, as well 
as a country without a people. The Egyptians have 
gone, we know not whither, — thrust out by their Sara- 
cenic or Turkish conquerors, who, in default of any 
legitimate claimants, have served themselves heirs to 
the land of the Pharaohs. All that remain to repre- 
sent ancient Mizraim are the few Copts of Middle and 
Upper Egypt, — or perhaps the still fewer families of 
the gypsy race, if indeed these last be not rather In- 
dians who, having found their way into Europe through 
Egypt, got the name of the country from which they 
last sailed.* But the Jew remains ; scattered over the 
earth like the ashes of his own altar ; or rather like the 
seeds of his own fields, which, sown among the nations, 
have sprung up everywhere into a wondrous harvest ; 
a harvest which no man gathers, and about which no 
nation concerns itself. Always sowing itself, it springs 
up in silence ; always on the increase, it is yet so scat- 
tered as to present no bulk in any one region, so that the 

* Even the Scottish g3 T psies retain I know not how many Sanscrit words 
in their common vocabulary. A Hindoo would at once find himself at 
home with them, at least in their words for common objects. 



THEIR INDIVIDUALITY. 



19 



true census of this people could only be taken by a com- 
bined movement among all the governments of earth * 
Though intermarrying with no Gentile tribe or nation, 
these Jews have not degenerated in form, or intellect, 
or vigour. They are no worn-out race, diseased and 
puny • though the oldest extant, they give out no 
sign of age or decay. The blood of the patriarchs still 
flows in their veins, healthy and uncorrupted. Poor 
as they seem sometimes, as you see them passing 
through the cities of the Gentile, with the dark ringlet 
falling over their thin, wan cheek, you would know 
them in Alexandria, or Cairo, or Jerusalem amid a 
hundred others, — if not by their step and sinew, at least 
by their forehead and their eye. 

Taking shelter under the wing of every Gentile na- 
tion, they find a home in none. No nation will ally 
itself or join affinity with them ; they will ally them- 
selves and join affinity with none. Inhabiting their 
Own " quarter" in the cities both of east and west, in 
London or in Jerusalem, not more from compulsion or 

* " Thou hast increased the nation ;" (Isa. xxvi. 15). Or literally 
" Thou hast added to the nation, Jehovah, 
Thou hast added to the nation, 
Thou art glorified ! 

Thou hast extended all the bounds of the land." 
This refers to the day when Israel shall return, a greatly multiplied nation 
to a greatly enlarged land, and when they shall be truly " Joseph," the 
increased or multiplied one. To this also refers Isa. ix. 3, " Thou hast 
multiplied the nation ; thou hast not increased the joy ; (but) they shall 
yet joy before thee, as with the joy of harvest ;" for the day of their deliver- 
ance is the time when "the harvest of the earth" is reaped, (Rev. xiv. 15). 



20 



THEIR LANGUAGE. 



custom than from choice, they keep up their national iso- 
lation, as if some mysterious cordon were drawn around 
them, over which they may pass to no Gentile, and over 
which no Gentile may pass to them. The " fugitives" 
of earth (Gen. iv. 14), their brother's blood upon them, 
they increase and prosper on every soil, yet no soil 
seems to suit them, and no kingdom is willing to retain 
them. Exotics everywhere, they yet thrive and grow ; 
but only and evidently for transplantation to a more 
congenial climate and soil.* 

Speaking the language of every Gentile kingdom, — 
nay, carrying these tongues of the hated Goyim even 
to J erusalem itself, they yet own as their mother-tongue 
only the language of Abraham and David. In common 
intercourse, as neighbours or as merchants, they seem, 
by their speech, the men of Spain, or Germany, or 
Kussia, or Poland, or Italy, or England ; in all things, 
sacred and national, they are Hebrews only. 

This is something unique in history ; a new thing in 
the earth. Here is a land waiting for a people, and a 
people waiting for a land. For just as they have never 
been able surely to root themselves in any kingdom, so 

* u The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a 
dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for 
man, nor waiteth for the sons of men," (Mic. v. 7). Thus widely scattered 
over earth, like dew, shall Israel be ; but in the morning, when the sun 
rises, they shall vanish from these different regions like dew, to be re-ga- 
thered into their own land. " The nation shall be a free-will offering in 
the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the 
morning: to thee shall be the dew of thy youth," (Psa. ex. 3). 



THEIR LAND. 



21 



their land has never allowed the nations to root them- 
selves securely in its borders. Seized upon by all 
nations, in different ages, it has cast them out in succes- 
sion, denying them even tenant-right, and telling them 
that the inheritance is not theirs. 

Is there no meaning in the fact that there has been 
for ages no real security for landed property in Pales- 
tine ? No proper title-deeds can be given, or, if given, 
there is no law to enforce them. It is said that the 
only law in this matter is that of 6 • use and wont " that 
when a man plants a tree, he can claim all the land 
over which that tree, when full-grown, casts its shadow 
at noon. But proper legal security there is none. The 
true heir is absent, and, in his absence, his land cannot 
legally be bought and sold. Had he been dead, the 
transfer might have gone on. But he is alive, and, 

O O 7-7 

though absent, he refuses to give his consent to any 
alienation of his patrimonial acres. Till his signature 
can be obtained, all purchases must be a venture, and 
all " deeds and dispositions" mere empty scrolls. 

Even had the Jew not been the ancient possessor of 
Palestine ; had there been no divine promise as to 
Jewish heirship, and no prophetic intimations of a 
future reoccupation, we should have been inclined to 
say, let this empty corner of the earth be given to this 
homeless race. But when these Hebrew tribes are the 
ancient tenantry ; when they still claim the land, and 
rest their claim upon words that cannot be broken ; 
when there are intimations, neither few nor dark, in 



22 



THEIR RESTORATION. 



Scripture, that grace is to undo all that judgment has 
done, — then the question becomes greatly simplified, 
and we become more assured that the issue of the 
strange spectacle which the Gentiles have witnessed for 
so many centuries, the solution of the singular problem 
which has so often engaged the thought, not only of 
the general historian but of the infidel philosopher, 
will be the replacement of Israel in their own heritage, 
— a heritage wdiich has for ages been kept open for 
them, and Yfhich now seems more open to them, — more 
ready to welcome them than ever. 

They are the most thoroughly intact " nationality " 
in the earth ; and in the cry for the restoration of 
nationalities and heritages, may not the Jew, as well as 
the Pole or the Italian, be allowed to join ? 



CHAPTER II. 



SIMEON AND JUDAH — NEIGHBOURING CITIES — FLOWERS — RUINS 

WINDINGS ASCENT DHAHARIYAH QUARANTINE VIEW 

SHEIKH FIRST NIGHT IN PALESTINE. 

We could have wandered for hours over these knolls 
and amid these ruins. But day will not wait for us, 
and the sun is nearing his noon-height. Besides, we 
are in the land of tribes whose friendliness cannot be 
counted on, and whom our sheikh evidently does not 
like. We do not wish to be separated from our men, 
and w r e are anxious, moreover, to reach Dhahariyah 
before nightfall, as our dragoman declares the people of 
that place to be " bad people/' who might make free 
with our goods and his " thingies/' as he calls them. 

The first tribe on whose territory we had set foot was 
that of Simeon, the tribe to which Jacob has bequeathed 
his curse, and for which Moses has left no blessing, — the 
tribe whose warrior-thousands, well fitted for border- 
warfare, guarded the frontier of the land.* But we have 

* It was to this warlike tribe that the heroine of Israel, Judith, be- 
longed. Hence in her prayer before setting out to slay the invader of her 
soil she says, " Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom thou gavest a 
sword to take vengeance of the strangers," (Chap. ix. 2). 



24 



SIMEON AND JUDAH. 



scarcely entered it, when we leave it, passing into that of 
Judah. Through the ravines, and rocks, and woods, 
where "the lion of Judah" had his covert, our journey 
for the next three days will lie. Over this region it 
was that the " lion's whelp" roamed ; and here he 
" went up from the prey here '* he stooped down, he 
couched as a lion, and as an old lion" (Gen. xlix. 9).* 

There is no place or scene of note within sight, though 
many such there must have been here, two thousand 
years ago, and even since. Just out of sight, some six 
or eight miles off, to the south-east, there lies Avarah, 
the ancient Aroer of Judah (1 Sam. xxx. 28). Directly 
east, some ten miles off, is El -Milh, probably the ancient 
Moladah, which, in Joshua xv. 26, is assigned to Judah, 
and afterwards, (xix. 2), is given, along with Beersheba 
and Shema, to Simeon. In the same direction, but 
some twenty-five miles farther east, close by the Dead 

* It is not easy to draw an exact line between Judah and Simeon. A 
large district in the neighbourhood of Beersheba seems to have belonged 
to both. Originally it was Judah's, but being too much for him, it was 
shared with Simeon. This latter tribe seems to have had no proper terri- 
tory of its own, but merely to have got as much land and as many cities 
as J udah could spare. Thus it lay scattered over the south and south-west 
of Palestine. This was one part of the fulfilment of Jacob's prophecy, 
" I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel" (Gen. xlix. 7). 
See Iceland's Palestina, vol. i. p. 143-151. Keil on Joshua, pp. 419, 420. 
Valentini Comment, in Genesin., vol. iv. p. 790. The Jews have a tradi- 
tion that the scribes, and lawyers, and schoolmasters were of Simeon, 
and that these were dispersed over the land, according to Jacob's pro- 
phecy, just as the priests, heads of courts and assemblies, belonged to 
Levi, and were also scattered among the people. So the Jerusalem Targum 
affirms. 



KENITES. 



25 



Sea, is Es-Zuweireh, which some have thought to in- 
dicate Zoar, as it lies but a little way north of Usdom, 
which certainly represents the ancient Sodom. If Zu- 
weireh be not Zoar, it may perhaps be the memorial of 
Zohar the father of Ephron the Hittite, who in all like- 
lihood was a prince in the region between Hebron and 
the Dead Sea, over part of which Wady-es-Zuweireh 
extends.* 

Somewhere between Aroer and Sodom, the Keivites 
seem to have settled, that interesting tribe of Gentiles, 
descended from J ethro, who cast in their lot w T ith Israel, 
and were permitted to share in J udah's portion when 
the land was possessed. "And the children of the Kenite, 
Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm- 
trees with the children of Judah, into the wilderness of 
Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad ; and they went 
and dwelt among the people'' (Judges i. 1 6).f Little is 
said about their land or themselves, but that little is 
enough to make us desirous of knowing more about 
both. They dwelt in the " wilderness of Judah," — that 
same region in which David took refuge, when fleeing 

* De Saulcy places Zoar on the west, or rather south-west of the Dead 
Sea, or Bahr Lut ; Dr Robinson and Van de Velde on the east. It must 
have been very near Sodom (now Usdom, at the south end of the sea) else 
Lot could not have made his way from the one city to the other between 
the first break of dawn and the rising of the sun, which in that region 
must be within half-an-hour. 

+ See the long note of Drusius on this passage in his Annotations. In 
1 Sam. xxvii. 10, David is said to have gone up from Gath against " the 
south of Judah and the south of the Kenites," which indicates the geogra- 
phical position of this tribe. 



26 



A i.i AD. 



from Saul, and of which probably the deserts of Ziph 
and Maon formed parts. This wilderness occupied the 
south-western coast of the Dead Sea, and went inwards 
toward Beersheba and Hebron. It is one of the most 
wild and rocky districts of Palestine, — the well-known 
peaks of Masada being specimens of its savage gran- 
deur. On these precipices, — these " thunder-splin- 
tered pinnacles/' — the mountains of Moab, from tne 
eastern side of the sea, look down. And pointing with 
prophetic ringer to these rocks of Judah as the Kenite 
stronghold, Balaam said, " strong is thy dwelling-place, 
and thou puttest thy nest in a rock, nevertheless the 
Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee 
away captive" (Numb. xxiv. 21, 22).* As they had 
shared Israel's heritage and blessing, so they were to 
partake of their exile and calamity ; being carried cap- 
tive by the Assyrian (after long days of " wasting") 
and scattered over the east, where one section of 
them were found by a modern traveller, as the de- 
scendants of Jonadab the son of Bechab (Jer. xxxv. 
1-H)t 

To the north-east, some twenty miles off, Tell Arad 
seems to mark the site of the ancient Arad, whose 
king fought against Israel and took some of them pri- 
soners (Numb. xxi. 1), but whom Joshua overcame 
(Josh. xii. 1 4). In the same direction, but about twenty 
miles beyond Arad, lies Sebbeh, the Masada of Jose- 

* See Rosenmuller's note on this passage. 

f See Joseph Wolff's Journal (1839), p. 370, 389. 



GEHAIt. 



27 



phus, the scene of a siege and massacre to which his- 
tory presents no parallel.* To the west, stretching for 
some thirty miles across beyond the Wady-es-Seba, lies 
the northern termination of the great desert of Et-Tih, 
which we had so lately traversed ; and somewhere in 
that direction, perhaps midway between us and Gaza, 
must lie Gerar, so well known in patriarchal story.-f- 
This must have been what Jerome so often speaks of as 
the Geraritic region, from which he supposes that Abra- 
ham went up to Jerusalem to lay Isaac on the altar. 
The exact limits of that region cannot be ascertained, 
but the town Gerar from which the district took its 
name, is said by Jerome to be twenty-five miles south 
of Eleutheropolis, whose exact site is no longer a matter 
of doubt. J 

We now strike due north, and, under a hot sun, move 
briskly on, overtaking our caravan in less than an hour. 

* Josepbus, Jewish War, book vii. chapters 8 and 9 ; Lynch "s Jour- 
nal of Expedition to the Dead Sea; Official Report of the United States 1 
Expedition ; De Saulcy, vol. i. 202-233 ; Van de Velde, vol. ii. 97-103. 

+ Travellers will find it as useful as it is interesting, to try to note the 
distances and bearings of the places beyond the vision as well as within it. 

$ Dr Stewart's statements have failed to satisfy me (Tent and Khan, 
p. 207). In endeavouring to identify Gerar with Wady Jerur, which is 
but a little way above Muzeiriah and Lussan, and not far north of the 
latitude of Petra, Dr S. has given too little weight to the affirmations of 
Eusebius and J erome, who seem to have known the place well. Wady 
J erur must be about a hundred and twenty miles south of Eleutheropolis 
instead of twenty-five. The journey between Wady Jerur and Jerusalem 
took us six days. I suspect that a careful perusal of Dr Robinson's last 
edition will shake Dr Stewart in his opinion, that " the position of Eleu- 
theropolis has not been satisfactorily identified'' (p. 208). 



28 



FLOWERS. 



Our way lay over a gently-rising table-land, relieved by 
soft hollows at intervals, and crossed occasionally by a 
narrow water-course, whose beds of pebbles and white 
stone seemed like strines of silver intersecting broad 
masses of iron. At every step we tread on pottery ; 
not in such vast heaps as at Alexandria, but still in suf- 
ficient quantities to shew that this region had not al- 
ways been the mere haunt of Nomads, — the temporary 
grazing-ground for the scanty flocks of the cityless fel- 
lalnn. Crocuses and lilies of various kinds scatter 
themselves around. A plant not unlike the mallow 
begins to shew itself. Our Arabs call it Khubbah. 
The thistle too now throws up its rough edges ; — not 
our shaggy field-thistle, nor our tall silvery Scotch 
thistle, but the ic variegated" species, common enough 
at home. Its bright green leaf, streaked with silver, 
formed a rich carpet for these ill-clad wastes. We had 
not found it in the desert, but from the day that we 
entered Palestine till the day we left it we saw it al- 
most every hour. The Arabs call it Kaiib. It has no 
resemblance to the shrub of the desert, half-thorn and 
half-thistle, which they call Akhul, and on which our 
camels used to graze so eagerly. 

Once and again we passed, or saw at a short dis- 
tance, flocks of sheep, tended by women or children. 
These consisted, not of a dozen or so of lean kids or 
long-eared sheep (as used to be the case in the desert), 
but of well-fed animals who straggled along the pas- 
tures in hundreds. 



I 



FLOWERS. 



29 



We soon came to an extensive plain, through which 
our road lies for several miles. Its appearance is not 
unlike an English common. Besides grass, we observe 
. lilies, snowdrops, thistles, dandelion, and especially the 
wood-anemone, a large bed of which, in a moist spot 
where the verdure is rich and thick, attracts our atten- 
tion.* It is the first as well the finest of the regular 
flowers which we have, as yet, seen in the land, for 
lilies and crocuses are productions of the desert as 
w r ell as of the land, which the anemone is not. It 
appeared for the first time after w r e had crossed the 
desert-line. The specimens w T hich we see of it in this 
grassy circle are large and rich, but of one colour only. 
They looked to us strangely beautiful ; their rich, soft, 
rosy cup, as it lifted itself so gracefully out of the sward, 
contrasting gaily with the brown wastes around, and 
still more with the rough, hard, dingy vegetation of 
the desert, which had become so irksome to us. It 
w r as pleasant to see these " wind-flowers" waved to the 
sunshine in the breeze of Palestine."}" 

We now come to the foot of a hill, or succession of 
hills, commencing the " hill-country" of Judah (Josh, 
xxi. 11 ; Luke i. 39, 65), and leading us over toDhaha- 
riyah. Not far off are ruins of considerable extent, 
stretching over a circle of about a mile in diameter. I 
did not get the name from our Arabs ; but I suspect 

v I suppose that these anemones are what Dr Robinson calls " low 
scarlet poppies" (vol. i. p. 207). 

f Anemone literally means " wind-floicer." 



30 



WINDINGS. 



that this is El-Ilileh, marked on Dr Robinson's map as 
a few miles from Bir-es-Seba. Among the ruins were 
a great many small piles of stones, the use and history 
of which we could not discover. They could not be 
way-marks, as they were clustered together ; yet they 
looked not unlike these. Every object, however trivial, 
now catches the eye, as we are in a land where every 
inch of soil or rock has a history. 

Stat nullum sine nomine saxum. 

We have struck into a defile, with so many windings 
that one might almost call it a spiral staircase of rock, 
built by giant hands of old. It crosses Jebel-el-KhuUl, 
that range of mountains in the midst of which El- 
Khulil (Hebron) is situated. We find here a larger 
amount of cultivation than we have as yet seen. We 
cross, and then wind along the edge of a brook scarcely 
dry, in the neighbourhood of which are a few trees. We 
are evidently getting into a more fruitful and better- 
watered region, and we can mark progress every hour. 
A skilful and bold farmer from the banks of the Tweed 
or the Carse of Gowrie, with the help of a few northern 
ploughmen, and some capital to work upon, would soon 
achieve marvels in these ill-used fields. 

On a height to the left we see some ruined houses, 
but cannot discover the name. All the hillocks in that 
direction are adorned with trees, which twist their roots 
into every crevice of the rock. Lilies still scatter them- 
selves thickly in all directions ; and among them we 
see the cattle quietly feeding, — not on them, but on the 



ASCENT. 



31 



herbage which the shade of their broad leaves calls up 
and shelters. About three o'clock we came to a most 
beautiful glen, — quite a gem, even as it is ; how much 
more so were it wooded ! Hard by it are the remains 
of a small streamlet or " burn/' whose channel retains a 
few pools, and whose banks have not lost their moisture 
nor their greenness. 

Our ascent is, in most places, gradual, but in some, 
steep, broken by an occasional level, half a mile in 
breadth, and as much in length, which serves as a land- 
ing-place and rest between one ascent and another. 
Our road, for two hours at least, was a succession of 
rocky ladders ; for each of these ascending ravines is 
terraced regularly, so as to give the appearance of huge 
stairs, sometimes winding to the left, sometimes again 
to the right, as if conducting us to a castle of giants on 
the top of some mighty mountain. We scarcely see 
half a mile before us at any time, on account of the 
frequent bends of the defile, and much less than that 
distance on either side, as the hills rise precipitously on 
right and left, leaving, however, such a breadth of bot- 
tom, as, with the help of well-built terraces, furnishes 
room and soil for a long succession of fields, all under 
cultivation, though that cultivation is coarse and im- 
perfect. 

We must have passed through ten or twelve of these 
rising bends ; for again and again have we been tanta- 
lised with the hope that the next turn, or the next 
flight of steps, would bring us to the top of the ridge. 



32 



DHAHARIYAH. 



In vain we look and hope. The series appears endless.* 

Dhahariyah seems to remove farther off as we advance. 

The sun gets lower, and we wonder whether we shall 

reach the fort ere it descends. Suddenly, at an abrupt 

elbow of the ravine, we are relieved by seeing the old 

castle, perched on its rocky height, not a mile before us. 

It rises boldly, and looks well in the setting sun ; the 

poor village, which seems to hang about it, with its square 

yellow huts, rather helps, at this distance, to improve 

its appearance, a,nd to give dignity to its towers and 

broken ramparts. From this point it looks much bolder 

and substantial than it is ; not so isolated as El-Aujeh, 

which we passed some days ago, but well-set upon yon 

craggy perch. Like most of its fellow-castles in the 

east, and border " peels " in the north, it has seen better 

days, and has, at one time, been a noble stronghold for 

Romans, or Crusaders, or Turks— 

An eyry builded in the cedar's top, 

That dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. 

* This ascent to Dhahariyah illustrated to us sucn names as Maaleh- 
Akrahbjm, the ascent of Akrabbim (Num. xxxiv. 4 ; Josh. xv. 3 ; Judges i. 
36) ; the " way of the ascent to Bethhoron"' (Josh. x. 10) ; the ascent of 
Adummim " (Josh. xv. 7) ; the " as ent of the city " (1 Sam. ix. 11) ; the 
" ascent of Olivet" (2 Sam. xv. 30) ; at "the ascent of Gur " (2 Kings ix. 
27) ; the " ascent of Ziz " (2 Chron. xx. 16) ; they "buried him in the 
ascent of the sepulchres " (2 Chron. xxxii. 33) ; the " ascent of the Levites " 
(Neh. ix. 4); the ascent of the wall" (Neh. xii. 37); the ''ascent of 
Luhith" (Isa. xv. 5 ; Jer. xlviii. 5) These different places or objects were 
on heights, like Dhahariyah, and the way up to them was the Maaleh or 
ascent. The " ascent of the city " is the way which leads up to the city ; 
the "ascent of the sepulchres ' ? is the way which leads up to the sepul 
chres ; the " ascent of the wall " is the way which leads vp to the wall. 



QUARANTINE. 



33 



At five we reach a grassy field of a few acres, at the 
foot of the height on which the fort stands. It is 
slightly hollow, and bears marks of cultivation. Here 
we halt, not far from two old and massive olive-trees, 
which throw their branches over a circle of large diame- 
ter, — a circle which, we find, to be walled in with a 
low row of stones, as a fence against injury, and also to 
keep the surface-earth loose about the tree-roots. The 
olives look very venerable, and, though their "high 
tops" are not "bald with dry antiquity/' they look 
rather majestic in this spot, and greatly improve the 
scene. 

But a man clothed in authority has made his appear- 
ance, having on his breast a large brass plate, like a 
porter's badge, informing us, both in Arabic and French, 
that he is a government officer belonging to the "Board 
of Health." Unexpectedly we find that we are in 
quarantine. Of this calamity our dragoman had given 
us no warning, though he must have been aware of it. 
Quarantine on this lonely crag ! Amid these ill-favoured 
villagers ! And within two day's ride of J erusalem ! 
How tiresome ! But we are quite relieved at learning 
that our sanitary imprisonment lasts only for a day, 
or rather a night ; and we are allowed to depart in 
the morning as usual, only accompanied by our 
garde de sante, who is to see that we hold inter- 
course with no one, that we disperse no infection by the 
way, and that we are safely lodged in El-Khulil ; the 
line of separation between the infected and the healthy 

c 



34 



DHAHARIYAH. 



being preserved with the most scrupulous care. We 
have come out of Egypt, it seems, and the plague was 
there a few years ago (as were the ten plagues three 
thousand years ago), — therefore we must go into qua- 
rantine. True, we have been five weeks in the desert, 
which ought to have disinfected and deodorized us. But 
months of the desert are ineffectual for this. A night 
at Dhahariyah can do what forty days and nights in 
Et-Tih cannot achieve. However, we submit to the 
Pasha's decree without a murmur, seeing, after all, it 
does not keep us here an hour longer than we intended. 
We get moreover an illustration of scripture, viz., that 
a single night may stand for a whole day. 

We unload and pitch our tents. A cordon is drawn 
around us, — at least, a semi- cordon ; for, though de- 
barred all access to village and fort, we are left free to 
ascend the rocky steeps that rise above us to the east. 
Exclusion from the village is no hardship, as, at all 
times in the east, the outside is preferable to the inside 
of such a place, be it Khan or Kasr, or Kalat, or 
Balad or Medina. But we were sorry not to have a 
nearer look at the old castle, which is probably Roman, 
with relics, perhaps, of a Jewish foundation ; for, though 
Dhahariyah has not been identified with any Biblical 
or J osephan name, it must have always been a place of 
too great strength, as a frontier-pass and key to the hill 
country of Judah, not to have been fortified. Whether 
Dhahariyah may have taken its name, in long ages 
past, from " Zohar the Hittite," (Gen. xxv. 9), or from 



THK TEW. 



35 



Zohar the son of Simeon, (Gen. xlvi. 10), or whether the 
word simply means "noon," as Dr Robinson's Index 
says, I do not pretend to say. 

We took our way to the heights above us, on the 
east, after examining and admiring the old olives near 
our tents. A pretty broad path winds south-eastwards 
up the side of the hill, which we pursued for a little, 
but soon struck more directly upwards. The huge out- 
lying blocks of bare rock that strew the slope, and shel- 
ter some stray trees or shrubs, give great ruggedness to 
the scene, — sometimes appearing as precipices, some- 
times like ruins. There is a sprinkling of grass here 
and there, which not only softens the landscape, but 
shews what might be made of this mountain-hollow. 

We would fain climb to the top ; but the sinking sun 
deters us.* We know that we are among thieves, if not 
robbers ; so we must be cautious in our wanderings, 
though our experience since we left Cairo has not been 
such as to suggest alarms, and has rather inclined us 
to undervalue the prowess of travellers who have passed 
through dangers on every hand, and who could construct 
adventures out of the grunt of a camel or the report of 
a gun. It is pleasant from these heights to see village- 

* From the top of the hill Dr Robinson saw the ruins of Semua, east 
by south, which he thinks are to be identified with the Eshtemoh of 
Joshua (xv. 50), and was told that, close by, was Attir, perhaps the Jattir 
of Scripture (Josh. xv. 48), which, with Shamir and Socoh, had its place in 
the mountains of Judah. " Biblical Researches," vol. i. p. 494; ii. p. 205. 
Wilson's " Lands of the Bible," vol. i. p. 353, 354. Dr W. has identified 
Ghawein, near Dhahariyah, not with the A in of Jo3h. xv. 32, but with 
the A nim of the 50th verse, 



36 



VILLAGE SMOKE. 



smoke once more, though it be but a puff here and 
there of some family preparing its evening meal.* For 
about five weeks we have hardly seen any human dwell- 
ing save a black Arab screen, and here are actually 
cottages, and a castle to crown them ! Our desert so- 
journ has shewn us how " the mighty men of the 
children of Kedar have been diminished " (Isa. xxi. 17), 
so that "the villages of Kedar" (Isa. xlii. 11) have 
vanished, "the glory of Kedar" (Isa. xxi. 16) "has 
failed/'' and only some very few even of " the tents of 
Kedar 33 (Psa. cxx. 5, Cant. i. 5) remain. And though 
now we are traversing the " goodly land," yet, strange 
to say, it seems almost as naked a desert (in so far as 
man is concerned) as Sherif or Euhaibeh. 

We soon return, as the shadows are coming down, 
— though without one cloud in all the glowing Occident. 

* For once, we westerns have an advantage in understanding a Bible 
figure. Smoke is little known in the east, either in cities or villages, and 
there are no " chimney-tops " for sight-seers to resort to ; hence the 
words, "they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke," (Isa. ix. 18), 
— "the wicked shall consume into smoke" (Psa. xxxvii. 20), — " as smoke 
is driven away, so drive thou them away," (Psa. lxviii. 2), — "my days are 
consumed like smoke" (Psa. cii. 3), — are quite as expressive in the west as 
in the east. Our western fuel does not give forth so acrid a smoke as 
where wood is used ; hence, again, " smoke to the eyes," (Prov. x. 26), — 
" smoke in my nose," (Isa. lxv. 5),— are figures more of the east than the 
west, as is the "amaras fumus" of Virgil. — (Mn. xii. 588). The "bottle 
in the smoke," (Psa. cxix. 83), reminds us of a Highland hut as well as a 
Syrian hovel ; for, in both, the smoke finds its way up out at the roof only 
after paying its rtspects to the different corners and walls. The 
'• chimney " (Hos. xiii. 3) is the mere hole in the roof for escape, — 
a "smoke-hole." See Geseniu$, 



THE SHEIKH. 



37 



The weary sun hath made a golden set ; 
And by the bright track of his fiery car, 
Gives token of a goodly day to-rnorrow. 

As we near the foot, in the direction of the old olives, 
we see a flock of perhaps threescore black and white 
sheep returning from the hillside, where they have been 
grazing, or from the caves in which they have been 
sheltered from the noon-heat. Before them slowly 
walks the shepherd, staff in hand, not once looking be- 
hind him. The flock follows quietly, not scattering nor 
needing the rod or the angry shout. He and they 
seem to know each other well, and to have mutual 
confidence. He who wrote the twenty-third Psalm 
must have known scenes like this ; and still more He 
who said, " when he putteth forth his own sheep, lie 
goeth before them and the sheep follow him, for they 
know his voice/' (John x. 4). 

After dinner the sheikh of the village pays a visit to 
our encampment, or at least to the end of the field 
where our tents are ; for the laws of quarantine are 
rigid, and he dare not cross the line which the guard 
has drawn, nor exchange anything with us but words 
and frowns. Our dragoman calls us out of our tents to 
hear his proposals and demands. If not quite reason- 
able, they are very intelligible. He denies our right to 
encamp here without his permission ; and since we 
have thus intruded, we must pay trespass-money. 
The ground is not his, we tell him ; and besides, here 
we are. snugly encamped, armed with double-barrelled 



38 



DEMANIS OF THE SHEIKH. 



guns, revolvers, and matchlocks, with a magic line of 
health drawn round — let him dare to lay a finger on 
us ! We came without his leave ; and as we came, 
so we mean to stay until it suits us to go. Well then, 
we must pay him handsomely for permission to remain. 
As to paying, why he has no right to a farthing, and 
besides, we are really quite short of money, having paid 
it nearly all away at Jebel-Musa and Kalat Nakhl. 
We can give him nothing till we reach El-Khuds. 
That will never do. Franks have always plenty of 
money ; and we must empty our purses. Money he 
must have, and that a fair round sum too. We are the 
first travellers he has got hold of this season, and he 
cannot afford to let us go, Besides, according to the 
law of this lawless land, our Bedawin must stop here. 
They have no right to guide or carry us farther. His 
Highness, Sheikh of Dhahariyah, will provide us with 
as many men and camels as we like (perhaps more) to 
take us on to El-Khulil, and we must now consider our- 
selves, legally or illegally, at his mercy. Not a tent-peg 
shall we pull up till we have paid him his gold and 
hired his camels. How much does he expect from us ? 
Five hundred piastres each (£5), besides one hundred 
piastres per camel, — not a parah less ! This is too 
much. Yet we hardly know whether to be amused or 
annoyed, seeing we are more at his mercy than we 
should like to be, and he is one of the most scoundrel- 
looking men we have seen^ either of Bedawin or 
Fellahin. Sheikh Suliman was a gentleman in com- 



THE CONTEST. 



89 



parison with this mountain -robber. We remind him 
that our nation is at this moment fighting the Sultan's 
battles, — and that he must not be so hard upon English- 
men. What does he care about Sultan or Stambul? We 
appeal to the Pasha of Jerusalem. What does he care 
about Pasha or El-Khilds ? He must have his piastres, 
or we shall not move. What is the English Consul or 
the Queen of Great Britain to him? Our dragoman 
gets eloquent, both in word and deed ; and tearing his 
cap from his head, flings it, in real or feigned indigna- 
tion, at the Sheikh's feet, meaning " take my head first." 
Neither argument nor eloquence avails, and the Egyp- 
tian's fez-cap is tossed back with horror, upon the end 
of a chibouque-stick, as a transgression of the law^s of 
quarantine. We must pay the vagabond his money, 
or else remain prisoners at his pleasure. 

It is late ; so we give up the contest for the night. 
Telling him that w 7 e belonged to the nation that had 
taken Sebastopol, and that he need not expect us to strike 
to him, we retire to our tents ; though not without some 
misgivings that mischief may follow in the morning. 
The village is said to contain a hundred able-bodied 
men, owning no good name either for honesty or peace- 
ableness ; and if he succeed in rousing their passions or 
their covetousness against us, we may be forced to yield 
to his extortion, nay, perhaps to submit to an increased 
exaction. Our dragoman, however, does not take the 
matter very seriously, and says that he means to start 
on the morrow at his usual hour, and let the sheikh do 
his w r orst. 



40 



FIRST NIGHT IN PALESTINE. 



The sheikh and his half dozen of village grandees, — 
all nearly as ill-favoured^ as himself, — now rise, and 
giving us scanty salutation, make their way homewards 
up the slope. We soon retire to rest,, committing our- 
selves to the mighty guardianship of Him who neither 
" slumbers nor sleeps/' A heathen has taught us the 
lesson, 

" Quid sit futurum eras fuge quserere 

and a greater than he has given faith a w T ord to rest 
upon, — 

" Care not then for the morrowe, 
For the morrowe shall care for itself ; 
Every daye hath ynough of its owne travayll." 

(Matt. vi. 34. — Tyndale's trans.) 

In a short time all is quiet around us. The villagers, 
young and old, have gone to roost. Our own Arabs are 
asleep. Our quarantine guard professes to keep watch. 
But knowing that we are in the neighbourhood of pil- 
ferers, we look well to our tents, so placing our baggage 
in the centre that no hand nor hook may intrude at any 
point to purloin our goods without awakening ourselves. 
Not that we have much fear, but a little foresight often 
prevents a world of mischief and regret. Our own Arabs 
are faithful, and they lie around us, so that even the 
light footfall of theft could hardly trust itself to move 
between their ranks. They are quite aware of their un- 
safe proximity to a village whose evil name has found 
its way far into the desert of Et-Tih. Aoudeh, for 
security, deposits his bavoudeh in our tent. He can 



THE WATER OF THE LAND. 



41 



trust us, but he cannot trust his fellow-moslems of 
Dhahariyah. 

We have been well provided with water to-night, — 
our first in Palestine. It is not the first time that we 
have drank of the waters of the land ; for we tried some 
this morning at Bir-es-Seba, and we tasted of some 
brooks or pools by the way. But this is the first time 
that we have had our caravan-supply out of the wells 
of Judaea. Women (who look much more respectable 
than the men) bring it to us in water-skins. They are 
not allowed to approach nearer than the low rude wall 
that lines the highway to the village, which seems less 
than a stone's cast from our tents. But they bring their 
well-filled skins to the wall, and laying them down on 
one of its large stones, they retire till our men have 
emptied them into our barrels. The water is excellent ; 
the best that we have tasted since we drew from the 
well of Sinai. 

To-morrow, if the sheikh allows us, we hope to rest 
in the city of Abraham and David. Each hour will 
bring us into better known and more interesting terri- 
tory. And though we have got no very civil welcome 
at our first resting-place, we are better off than many a 
pilgrim of the old age, who would have been tossed into 
some dungeon of yon old castle, and would have been 
glad to get free by the payment of a ransom fifty times 
as large as that which is demanded of us.* 

* See the frequent references in the travellers of the last two centuries 
to the payment of "Caphar" or tribute, in every district through which 
they passed, — as well as narratives of pilgrims of a still anterior age. 



CHAPTER III. 



DHAHARIYAH — THE SHEIKH AND HIS DOLLARS — THE HILL COUNTRY — - 

THE BALLUT — CYCLAMEN — TERRACES — HEWN BLOCKS CITIES OF 

THE ANAKIM ADJOINING CITIES RUINS DILBEH DAUMEH — 

APPROACH TO HEBRON HEBRON. 

Bhahariyah, Saturday, Feb. 16. 1856. — As the pale 
dawn -light was just beginning to glimmer through our 
canvas, I awoke and found our servants already astir. 
Heard the inner row of our tent-pins pulled up, one by 
one, as usual. Bather pleased at this early sound, as it 
indicated that our dragoman was resolved to move in 
spite of last night's threats. But it remains to be seen 
what the sheikh will do. He does not seem as yet to 
have made his apjoearance. 

Sauntered up the hill for a short walk. The morning 
was pleasant, though with some wind moving. There 
had been neither frost nor dew ; and the air was milder 
than I should have expected at this season, on a height 
so considerable, for we are upwards of two thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. The climate of these 
southern highlands of Palestine seems pure and brac- 
ing, without the keenness of the mountain-chill, even 
though winter has not yet passed away. 



THE SHEIKH AND HIS DOLLARS. 



43 



During breakfast the sheikh came j as like a moun- 
tain-vagabond as ever. His demands were still the 
same, though whether he had any hope of obtaining 
them I cannot say. Haji-Ismail was quite as peremp- 
tory in his refusal, and went on making preparations 
for our departure. The sheikh stood looking on, at 
quarantine distance, while our Arabs packed and loaded. 
He spoke to them, but his words were lost on us, as they 
seemed to be also on them. He w 7 as quiet, and laid no 
hands on any one, and seemed to be rather in the predi- 
cament of one not knowing what to do. 

About half-past eight, w r e are ready to start, — a few 
of the villagers hovering about us, but shewung no in- 
civility. We move right past them, our guard of health, 
on a little pony, leading the way. The sheikh and the 
dragoman are having a conference, and a minute suffices 
to bring them to terms. We have refused to have any- 
thing to do with the matter, so Haji is settling it himself ; 
and, strange to say, there is no storm of any kind at the 
adjustment, — either of words or blows. Both parties 
seem satisfied. The great man has got three dollars 
instead of twenty pounds, — sixty piastres instead of two 
thousand ; nor has he been able to force his camels 
upon us. So that he has been fairly foiled. But like 
other easterns in such circumstances, he is not ashamed 
nor disconcerted. Nor does he shew any ill will either 
to us or our Arabs, but quietly submits to his defeat, 
with a better grace than a western extortioner, baffled 
in a cheating plot, would have done. He probably 



44 



THE HILL COUNTRY. 



thinks that to get the hundredth part of what he has 
asked is not a poor bargain after all, 

Immediately on clearing the village we begin to de- 
scend. But the descent greatly differs from the climb of 
yesterday. In the latter we were kept for nearly two 
hours in the tortuous hollow of a mountain-gorge, in 
which nothing was visible beyond the rocky acclivities 
on either side ; in the former we have an open though 
hilly country, over a rough and somewhat steep road. 
The ground is broken, — stony, not rocky, — with a con- 
siderable amount of soil, which throws up great quan- 
tities of thistles and thorns, intermixed here and there 
with the crimson anemone. A good deal of the land 
here is ploughed ; but it looks shaggy and half-tilled. 
The old threat has not been in vain, 

" Yea, I will lay it waste ! 
It shall not be pruned, 
And it shall not be digged, 

But there shall come up the briar and the thorn."* (Isa. v. 6.) 

The prophet's yet more minute and graphic picture of 
the desolate land we see on all sides as we pass along. 

11 Yea it shall be in that day, 
That each place where were a thousand vines 
At a thousand silverlings, — 
For briars and thorns it shall be ; 

* The "digging " or hoeing here spoken of, perhaps refers to the pro- 
cess which we so often saw, of breaking up the ground with an axe or 
mattock. Though Gesenius seems to prefer "weeded " here, yet he lets us 
know that the cognate noun means "a hoe," probably just such as we 
find in use, both here and in Egypt. 



THE BALLUT-T REE. 



45 



With arrows and bows they shall come to it.* 

Surely briars and thorns shall the whole land be. 

And all the hills (now) digged with the mattock, 

Thou shalt not approach them, 

For fear of briars and thorns ; 

And the land shall be for the sending forth of oxen 

And the treading of sheep/' (Isa. vii. 23-25.) 

We soon come to a tolerably wide hollow, covered with 
stunted wood. The chief, and in some parts the only tree 
of which the wood is made up, is one which looks to us 
very like a small-leaved holly. Its native name is ballnt, 
and it seems a species of oak, but evergreen and prickly, 
with an acorn precisely the same as our own, only 
rougher. It seems indigenous to this hilly region. 
Neither the axe nor the fire of the spoiler has rooted 
it out. The soil and the climate suit it, and there it 
grows, unplanted and uncared for, but still vital and 
vigorous. With a firm elastic leaf, of a dark but shin- 
ing green, with a tough branch and an iron stem, and 
a hardy root that can strike any where, it defies all 
extirpation. It has shaded these steeps for some thou- 
sands of years, and it shews no inclination to relinquish 
its hold. The races that first took shelter under it are 
gone, but it keeps its place in spite of every change, as 
if it could not be expatriated or made to lose hold of its 

* They come armed because of danger. Or the meaning may be, that 
they who traverse the land are not peaceful husbandmen, but wandering 
Bedawin, armed and seeking spoil. The hills, once terraced and hoed, 
shall become inaccessible, just as we saw them ; and the whole land, in- 
stead of being used for vineyards or oliveyards, shall be made a common 
pasturage like the wilderness. 



46 



TERRACES. 



native rocks. Mingling itself in some places with a 
species of privet, it greatly softens the scene, and the 
two, rooting themselves in all the crevices that have 
split the sides of these endless hollows, give an aspect 
of greater cultivation to the region than it really pos- 
sesses. 

These mountain-forests must have been mighty in 
their prime. Noble coverts these for Judah's lion ; 
even nobler than the rocks of Jebus or El-Blreh for 
the wolf of Benjamin ! 

Daisies are looking up from the brown soil, — the 
first that we have seen ; and still the lilies are every 
where, — on the hill or in the hollow.* The slopes are 
ridged with terraces, probably very old, and now out of 
use ; for who is there now to use them or even to keep 
them in repair? It is wonderful that many of them 
should be in such tolerable order. For this they owe 
something to the strength of their original construction ; 
but more perhaps to the climate and character of the 
land. Had they been in Egypt the sand or mud would 
long since have buried them. Had they been in the 
desert the fierce rush of the winter-flood would have 
swept them down. Had they been in our own country 
they would have crumbled down and gone to utter 
ruin long ago. But here they last amazingly ; and 

* "Lilies of the field," (Matt. vi. 28) ; that is, wild lilies, —just as we 
have "grass of the field," (Matt. vi. 30), that is, uncultivated ; and also, 
" roes of the field," that is wild roes. l( Asahel was light of foot as one of 
the roes of the field," (2 Sam. ii. 18). If God so adorn and care for these 
wild lilies which no man cares for, what will he not do for you ? 



THE CYCLAMEN. 



47 



when the exiled owner of the land returns he will find 
much already done to his hand, and he will enter on 
the labours of his fathers, in some places very much as 
they were left two thousand years ago. The terraces in 
the lower parts seem still k*pt up, and made use of ; 
those on the hill sides left to themselves. 

Hitherto we have been descending, since we loft 
Dhahariyah ; now we begin to ascend. Still the scenery 
does not change. Our description of the last hour's 
journey applies to this, with one exception. We now 
light upon the Cyclamen in full flower. It is large and 
handsome, and its circle is as brilliant as its leaf is 
delicate and soft. It sprinkles the wayside ; it shoots 
up among the prickly oaks ; it does not yield to the 
encumbering shrubs and brushwood, but sends up its 
bright circle every where. We sit down on the rocks 
to admire it, and to dig up some of its large bulbs for 
export to Great Britain. 

Again we descend into a pretty spacious hollow, 
bearing marks of modern as well as ancient cultivation. 
Low hills fence it round, and these are terraced to the 
top ; shrubs and trees of various kinds striking into 
every crevice and overshadowing the grey rock. Thorns 
are growing in abundance. It is one of the most ro- 
mantic passes that we have seen, extending for miles. 
All this is before noon. The sun is but thinly veiled, 
and makes us at times feel his power. Yet the pure 
spring air, ever in motion upon these fresh heights, 
cools and braces us, so that we march on for hours on 



48 



HEWN BLOCKS. 



foot, heedless of everything save the wild beauty of hill 
and dale, of rock and wood, insensible to everything 
save the enchantment of the scene. This road the pa- 
triarchs had often traversed in their frequent journeys 
from Beersheba to Hebron, sitting down at times, as we 
are now doing, not so much to rest, as to let in the joy 
around. Over these various ascents did Abraham go, in 
his way to the land of Moriah to offer up his son. 
The converse between father and child was once scat- 
tered along these waysides ; and these rocks had been 
witnesses to faith's struggles and victories in that 
awful journey. We could imagine, too, the difference 
between the going and the returning ; the shadows of 
the one, the sunshine of the other, — the " via dolorosa " 
between Beersheba and Moriah, the "via triumphalis " 
between Moriah and Beersheba. 

It is now twelve o'clock ; but we feel no inconveni- 
ence from the heat of noon. We mount our camels, 
however, as the road is rough and rocky. We see on 
both sides enormous masses of rock, too peculiar in 
form not to draw our notice. Some are parts of old 
terraces of vast size, some have come more under the 
hammer, if not the chisel of the ancient workman. 
But all of them appear to be in their natural position, 
rooted in their old beds or attached to their original 
mountain sides. Some look like entrances to caves ; 
some like doors of houses or temples ; some like aper- 
tures of wells or cisterns. They are not wasting or 
crumbling, as in the case of the sandstone ruins and 



REMAINS OF A CITY. 



49 



excavations of Feiran ; nor do they resemble the scat- 
tered debris of houses and churches in Ruhaibeh. They 
far more reminded us of the massive Phoenician ruins 
which we had seen at Malta, with this difference, that 
the stones of the latter had been quarried, and set up 
by the hands of the builder, whereas the stones of the 
former are (at least, many of them) un quarried and un- 
detached from their original rocks. The wide, but 
somewhat steep, ravine in which they are, is covered with 
vast boulders and outstanding mountain masses. Of 
these the original inhabitants have taken advantage, and 
hewn for themselves dwellings, and perhaps temples. 
What we see appears to us to have been the remains, 
not of a city cut out of a mountain- side like Petra, but 
of rocks which had been cut into a city. No doubt we did 
see one or two caves, the entrances to which had been 
artificially hewn and prepared ; but the city itself seemed 
to have stood c&efly below these, among the outstand- 
ing rocks. One large mass had been cut into a regular 
gateway, which is still standing, though the rest of 
the building is gone. There are others similar, some 
larger, some smaller, yet all of them of great bulk. We 
seem to be looking on the remains of some Cyclopian 
city. These are scanty enough ; but still sufficient to 
be remarkable. It is not merely, however, their size 
that strikes us, but their curiously mingled order and 
confusion, as they lie down in the ravine at our right, 
or rise above each other on the hill-slope at our left. 
We see no pillars, no ornaments, no inscriptions. What- 

D 



50 



REMAINS OF A CITY. 



ever city was here, it belonged to a far antiquity, a 
time of rude, unadorned, but massive architecture, when 
men, few in number, and unable to apply any great 
amount of power, took advantage of natural peculiarities, 
such as the withdrawing cave or the outstanding boul- 
der, and instead of shaping their materials to their plan, 
shaped their plan to their materials. Yet the scene is 
not a bare one. Far from it. There is no stream below, 
no rill trickling down the clefts, no moss vivifying the 
dead stone ; but there is quite a wilderness of rich brush- 
wood overspreading the whole. Not shrubs merely, 
but trees have taken possession of every free inch of 
soil ; the ballut, the privet, and the fir, rooting them- 
selves in each crevice, and forming an exquisite fringe 
or rather network of green, through whose interminable 
meshes the grey patches of the old rock came up like 
the tombstones of some primeval cemetery.* 

What city has this been ? Whose relics are these ? 
They are not Roman ; they are not J ewish ; they are 
not patriarchal. They belong to an antiquity beyond 
these. Had we been in Sicily, we should have said, the 
Cyclops have been here, — this is their workmanship. 
Had we been in the Hauran, we should have concluded 
that we had stumbled into some of the cities of Og 
King of Bashan, which Mr Porter has so well described. 
But as we are in neither of these, we must consider 



* The firs were not large ; in leaf and colour very much resembling the 
Scotch fir. 



THE ANAKIMS. 51 

what people occupied these southern highlands of 
Palestine. 

It appears that this region was occupied at a very- 
early period by the Anakim, who were of the Rephaim 
nations. Their chief city, Hebron, which we are just 
approaching, was one of the oldest cities of history, 
having been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt 
(Num. xiii. 22), the chief city of the Delta. The iden- 
tity of the Anakim and Rephaim is of no consequence 
to our present statement ; still it is worth while notic- 
ing that Moses explicitly mentions this : " The Emims 
dwelt therein in times past, a people great and many, 
and tall as the Anahims ; which also were accounted 
Rephaim (in our translation " giants v ), as the Ana- 
kims/' (Dent. ii. 10, 11). Thus the Anakim branch of 
the Rephaim were the original occupiers of Southern 
J udaea. They were the first that took possession of its 
mountains, building cities and swaying no feeble sceptre 
over a large region around. They were evidently, not 
only an ancient, but a warlike and formidable tribe. 
It was not of hordes of savage wanderers or herdsmen 
that Moses made mention, in such words as these, — 
"Hear, Israel ; thou art to pass over J ordan this day, to 
go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thy- 
self, cities great, and fenced up to heaven ; a people great 
and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou 
knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can 
stand before the children of Anah V (Deut. ix. 1, 2). 
And even though we may admit that the report of the 



52 



ANAKIM RUINS. 



spies was greatly coloured by their fears, still their 
language indicates the character of the Rephaim tribe. 
' ; Here we saw the giants, the sons of Anah, who came of 
the giants f and we were in our own sight as grass- 
hoppers, and so we were in their sight/' (Num. xiii. 33). 

Now it was through this region, where w T e now are, 
that the spies passed in their way up to Hebron ; and 
wc inay regard their words as describing the men whose 
giant-hands had hewn out these massive blocks that 
we see on both sides of us. These are Anakim ruins, 
amongst the oldest perhaps now in existence. These 
are Anakim gateways, and walls, and cisterns, and 
caves. 

Not only are the men described to us, but the cities 
as well. " The people be strong that dwell in the land, 
and the cities are walled and very great/' (Num. xiii. 
28) ; "the cities were great and fenced/' (Josh. xiv. 12). 
These bulky but well-hewn fragments to our right give 
us some idea of what their walls must have been. And 
these terraces to our left, rising tier above tier in mas- 
sive blocks, must have been meant for something more 
than the mere preservation of the soil. Going up as 
they do to the hill-tops, they intimate the true sense of 
that expression of Moses, u cities great and fenced UP 
TO heaven/' (Deut. ix. 1). It is not at all unlikely 
that these are not of Anakim workmanship, — but ter- 
races of a subsequent and more agricultural age, formed 

* The word "giants" here is not Rephaim but Nephilim, the same 
word as in Gen. vi. 4, — " There were giants in the earth in those days." 



THE VALLEY OF ESHCOL. 



53 



cut of the original Anakim battlements that ran along 
the steeps, if not over the ridges of these hills. 

The scenery is fine, though wild, nay, I might say 
savage, from the hugeness of the blocks and the shaggi- 
ness of the woods. Yet one could ill spare any part of it. 
To trim that brushwood, to till these terraces, to split or 
roll away these masses, would destroy the vision and make 
us forget that the giants of primeval days were here. 

This probably was once a vine country ; at least the 
neighbourhood of Hebron seems to have been so. 
This whole region, as well as the more northern part 
of it, might have been Eshcol, and from such hillsides 
or such hollows as these, the grapes were gathered by 
the spies. As Eshcol was one of Abraham's three 
friends who occupied the district in which we are, some 
part of it in all likelihood took his name. Perhaps, 
however, before his days the land was rich in vineyards 
and famous for its clusters. Nor can one help connect- 
ing these things with Homer's fable of the Cyclops, in 
whose land all is gigantic, cave, rock, tree, and herd, 
and who are represented as boasting of their well- 
watered soil and the huge clusters of their vines. 

Our Arabs were not at home in this region. They 
had not at first wished to set foot on it, but to leave us 
at Dhahariyah ; and they could tell us nothing of its 
places or their names. This was a considerable loss to 
us, as the track is not often trodden, and has not yet 
been fully examined nor described. Dr Robinson passed 
through it during night, and Dr Wilson amid showers 



5i 



UN TRAVERSED DISTRICT. 



of driving rain. We were glad to have had the oppor- 
tunity of seeing it under the sunshine of such a genial 
noon. Travellers from Jerusalem seldom go farther 
south than Hebron ; and those coming from Petra or 
any part of the South East generally strike directly to 
Hebron, by Main (Muon, Josh. xv. 55), Kurmul (Car- 
mel (1 Sam. xxv. 2), and Zif (Ziph, 1 Sam. xxiii. 14), 
or in a more westerly route by El-Milh (Moladah, J osh. 
xv. 26), El-Ohuwein (Anim, Josh. xv. 50), Es-Semua 
(Eshtemoh, ib.), and Tatta (Jutta, Josh. xv. 55). Mov- 
ing straight north from Beersheba and Dhahariyah on 
a pleasant spring day, Ave saw it fully and to the best 
advantage. 

Not far off to the left lies the village of Dura, the 
ancient Adoraim of Rehoboam's day, (2 Chron. xi. 9). 
But this we did not see, and I merely note it in passing, 
as it helps to bring the old memories and histories of the 
locality before us. To the right I observe in Dr Robin- 
son's map Ed'Daumah marked, — the Dumah of J oshua, 
(xv. 52). 

Our road is a tolerably good one. It would be suf- 
ficiently rough for carriages certainly, but suits the 
foot-traveller, as well as the camel or the mule. It is 
cut in the rock, along a pretty broad ledge, half-way 
up the precipitous side of the ravine. The view on 
every side, though confined, is of no common grandeur, 
mingled at the same time w 7 ith a beauty to which spring 
lends peculiar softness. It is quite a dwelling for the 
sons of Anak ; yet in it Abraham and his three friends. 



SYRIAN TRAVELLERS. 



55 



Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre (Gen. xiv. 24), who doubtless 
knew it well, would find a beauty as suitable to their 
gentler spirits. David too has been here. 

We have met, in the course of the day. several of the 
natives ; not exactly the fellahin, but men apparently 
travelling on business. They look very superior to our 
Arabs, and even to our sheikh, in size, in dress, and in 
general appearance. Ours look a worn-out race ; these 
Syrians seem in their prime. There is less of the Bed- 
awi, and more of the Jew, about them ; plumper and 
rounder, though perhaps less elastic, than our hardy 
men of the desert. They are not so dark in complexion, 
nor so thoroughly sun-tanned as our attendants, and 
have besides a more portly and commanding aspect. 
Their gaudy tarboosh or kefieh of striped red and yellow, 
the favourite colours of Syria, and their flowing abyah, 
contrast gaily with the dingy white and brown of our 
Bedawin head-dresses, and still more with their poor 
and tattered mantles. 

The road does not lie straight. It twists and winds 
considerably. Nor is it level at almost any point here. 
It ascends gradually, by means of terraces, till it reaches 
the brow of that hill or ridge before us, up which we 
are slowly moving. These windings add greatly to the 
attractiveness of the scene, and prevent its becoming 
monotonous or tiresome. As we mount terrace after 
terrace, and take turn after turn among these roughly- 
wooded mountain-glens, some new feature of beauty or 
grandeur discloses itself. 



56 



NEWS OF THE WAR. 



It is now about twenty minutes past twelve, and we 
are almost on the brow of the ridge. A man appears 
upon it, and as he comes up our dragoman salutes him, 
and asks the news. " The Russians have yielded, and 
there is peace." These are the first European tidings 
we have heard since we left Cairo. They greet us 
pleasantly in this far land ; but we remember how, 
ere w r e left home, month after month cheated us with 
like rumours. We shall soon learn how much truth 
there may be in this report when we reach J erusalem ; 
meanwhile it is not uninteresting to note the spot, amid 
the hills of Judah, where the tidings met us. The 
bearer of them is an Egyptian proceeding southward. I 
suppose he has come by steamer from Alexandria to 
Joppa, and is now taking his way on foot to some place 
in the interior, perhaps to look after his flocks and 
herds. 

Just here we see ruins, close to the right of our road, 
on a small platform. There has been a large square 
building with various compartments. We are still amid 
terraces, numerous and old, — furrowing, or rather ridg- 
ing, the hills to the top, — perhaps about twenty feet 
from each other. From the levels of most of them the 
soil has been completely washed away, so that no small 
amount of labour and money would require to be ex- 
pended ere they would yield anything to the care of the 
tiller. Yet trees and wild plants sprinkle the rocky 
acclivities. The lily is still here in wild profusion, and 
the cyclamen, though not so plentiful, yet at a hundred 



VINE TERRACES. 57 

crevices is peeping out, and half-drooping, half-erect, 
shakes its brilliant coronet to the noon. Thorn-trees 
shoot up in various places ; the arbutus, too, here and 
there ; but it is the ballut that covers the landscape. 
This last seems indigenous to the district. It is not 
probable, however, that it was allowed to reign thus 
undisputed in former ages. These terraces were covered 
with the vine and the olive, specially with the former ; 
for somewhere here was the great southern vineyard of 
Palestine, from which the spies gathered their ponder- 
ous cluster. But as soon as the region was dispeopled, 
and agriculture ceased, the vine withered away. It 
is, I believe, an ascertained fact in our own high- 
lands, that where lands are thrown out of tillage to any 
extent, forest trees begin to shew themselves which had 
not been known to exist in the locality before. The 
soil, left to itself, refuses to remain idle, and throws up 
its natural offspring, now that it is no longer allowed to 
rear an artificial one planted by man. Judging, then, 
from what we see around, we should say that bulbs and 
Lallvts are the true aborigines of these rocky uplands. 
Man, when he took possession of the region, displaced 
them, and with his artificial terraces introduced an arti- 
ficial forest of vines. But man has disappeared ; the 
terraces are broken ; the soil is washed away ; " the 
vine has languished " (Isa. xxiv. 7), and " the forest of 
the vintage is come down " (Zech. xi. 2). The land, now 
left to itself, and " enjoying its Sabbaths " (Lev. xxvi. 
34), has returned to its original condition, and has, for 



58 



desolat;ox of the land. 



ages, been sending up its purely indigenous growths, 
nothing else being able to maintain itself without the 
help of man. 

This transition from the untilled and forest-covered 
condition of the region, in the days of the Anakim, to 
its cultivated and vine-clothed state in the time of 
Israel. — and then this return to primeval ruggedness, 
is the figure so strikingly made use of in the following 
Psalm : 

A vine out of Egypt thou hast brought forth ; 
Thou hast driven out the nations, 
And planted it ! 

Thou hast cleared the ground before it, 

And hast rooted its roots. 

Yea, with it thou hast filled the land. 

The mountains were covered with its shadow, 

And its boughs were the cedars of God. 

It sent its branches to the sea (Mediterranean), 

And to the river its shoots (Euphrates). 

Why hast thou broken down its fences 

So that all passers by the way have plucked it? 

The boar out of the forest hath wasted it, 

And the wild beast of the field hath devoured it. 

It is burned with fire, 

It is cut down. 

Because of the rebuke of thy face they have perished. 

(Psa. lxxx. 8-16.) 

The above figure is turned into a literal reality before 
us, as we look on these terraces and hollows. The 
figurative vine is gone, but the literal vine has perished 
too. The land lies under the blight, because its people 
are lying under judgment. Guilt intercepts the bless- 



ED-DILBEH. 



59 



ing and turns the fruitful soil into barrenness, (Psa. 
cvii. 34). 

The field lies waste, 

The ground mourneth, 

For the corn is laid waste, 

The new wine is dried up, 

The oil languisheth. 

Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen, 

Howl, O ye vinedressers, 

For the wheat and for the barley. 

Surely the harvest of the field is perished. 

The vine is dried up, 

And the fig-tree languisheth, 

The pomegranate, yea the palm and the apple ; 

All the trees of the field are withered ; 

Surely joy is withered away from the sons of men, 

The seed is rotten under their clods. 

The garners are laid desolate, 

The barns are broken down, 

For the corn is withered. (Joel i. 10-17.) 

We begin once more to descend, and soon find our- 
selves in a pretty large valley, cultivated to a consider- 
able extent. Our Arabs gave us Ecl-Dilbeh as its name. 
Passing along we notice a large pool or tank by the 
wayside. It is square and well built, though as to its 
antiquity one can say nothing. No doubt it has seen 
ages passing by it, and in our country would be counted 
an ancient relic of an extinct people ; but antiquity is 
relative, and in these eastern lands one does not feel in- 
clined to call anything antique which does not date far- 
ther back than the destruction of Jesusalem, or which did 



60 



RUINS OF ED-DAUMEH. 



not belong to the ancient people of the land. This re- 
servoir, which is in the middle of the valley, is fed from 
the hill by a stone-built water course or conduit. A 
little way on we see ruins to the left, and another well 
to the right. We are told that the water in all these 
wells is good. A little farther on we notice a dried-up 
well, cut into the solid rock of the mountain. The ruins 
above referred to are, I believe, those of the village of 
Fd-Daumeh. The name at once suggests that of 
Dumah mentioned among the rest of the cities in the 
mountains of Judah, (Josh. xv. 52) ; and though Ed- 
Daumeh does not lie on a hill, yet it is in the heart of 
a hilly region, and must itself be very considerably ele- 
vated above the level of the sea. It must have been 
well watered, and surrounded by a fruitful soil ; but 
only the name remains to us in Scripture. It seems to 
have been still inhabited in the early centuries after 
Christ, for Jerome mentions it as being seventeen miles 
from Eleutheropolis, which corresponds exactly with the 
site of JEd-Daumeh. 

Descending, we soon come to another well in a valley. 
We then ascend once more. The road is rough in the 
extreme. Great part of it is over large flat blocks of 
stone, like a Roman road. Again we gradually descend, 
and now we see that we are coming into a land of " oil 
and wine for on all the heights are traces of the olive 
and the vine. It was of a region such as this that Jacob 
made the prophetic gift to Judah, where " his hands 



STATE OF CULTIVATION. 



61 



might be sufficient for him " (Deut, xxxiii. 7), and where 
he might bind his foal unto the vine, and his ass's 
colt unto the choice vine" where he might " wash his 
garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes/' 
(Gen. xlix. 11.) On the slope of the ridge opposite we 
see houses, and towers, and terraces. At first we think 
that it is the city itself that lies before us, so regular 
seems the cultivation, and so numerous the towers and 
walls. But we are disappointed. Hebron is not yet in 
sight. Another height must be surmounted. On the 
top of that height we see some venerable olive-trees, 
while all the way down to the valley under our feet are 
gardens, in the midst of which are square tow T ers, — those 
so often referred to in Scripture, as in Isaiah v. 2, " he 
built a tower in the midst of the vineyard."* These 
towers seem of considerable size, as if meant for some 
thing more than watching ; and we are told that in 
summer the inhabitants of the city take up their resi- 
dence in their gardens, and make use of these towers 
for shelter by night, as they do of their olives and vines 
for shade by day. These well-laid out and well-fenced 
fields, covering the whole landscape before us, indicate 
a far greater amount of cultivation, as well as a much 
larger population than any other spot through which 
we have passed. It is true that only the olive is green 
at present ; but various other fruit-trees rise up in all 
directions ; while the vine-trellises, and interminable 

* See also Matt. xxi. 33 ; Mark xii. 1. We did not see anything here 
corresponding to Isa i. 8, " a cottage (or booth) in a vineyard." 



62 



ESHCOL. 



rows of unpruned or half-pruned vines, shew that we 
are in the very heart of the land of Eshcol.* 

These fields and gardens are beyond the " suburbs" 
of Hebron, though in close proximity. These suburbs 
extended in ail about a mile beyond the walls of the 
city (Numb. xxxv. 4, 5) on all sides, and seem to have 
formed an open space or common, for pasture, but not 
properly for tillage. Beyond this circle lay what were 
called "the fields of the city and the villages thereof" 
(1 Chron. vi. 56), which " villages," as the Hebrew name 
implies, were more properly towers or fenced places in 
the midst of these fields. Then beyond these were the 
" villages" properly so called, or " daughters" of the city 
(1 Chron. ii. 23, vii. 28; Neh. xi. 31). One of these 
daughters of Hebron (Dumah) we had already passed. 
We had now arrived at " the fields and towers," through 
which we are to pass into the suburbs. This, in all likeli- 
hood, was the inheritance of "Caleb the son of Jephun- 

* Travellers, ancient and modern, speak of Eshcol in a very general 
way as somewhere hereabout, (Robinson i. 214). But Van de Velde gives 
us more special information : "Among the remarkable places in the district 
of Hebron, the governor mentioned to me the well Ain-'Eslali (the foun- 
tain of Eshcol), adding that its water was accounted the best in the whole 
world. The spring is about a quarter of an hour's walk to tke north of 
the city, in the wadi referred to/' viz. the wadi " that crosses the vale of 
Hebron from north-west to south-west." — Syria and Palestine, vol. ii. 
p. 6i. We have Mr Nicolayson's testimony to the same effect. 

Zunz, in his Rabbinical Geographical of Palestine, thus writes, " Hebron 
is distant from Jerusalem a winter-day's journey ; half an hour west of 
Hebron is Migdal-Eder ; the valley of Eshkal is north of the mountain on 
which Hebron stood, and the cave of Makhpelah is east thereof." — Asher 1 s 
Benjamin, vol. ii. p. 437. 



Caleb's mountain. 



63 



neh the Kenezite." This hill that lies before us covered 
with these towers and vineyards, was probably the very 
hill of which he spoke to Joshua, " Now therefore give 
me THIS MOUNTAIN, whereof the Lord spake in that 
day ; (for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims 
were there, and that the cities were great and fenced ;) 
if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able 
to drive them out, as the Lord said/' (Josh. xiv. 12). 
The hill before us has struck us greatly for the last 
twenty minutes, during which we have been keeping 
our eyes on it as we have been slowly descending the 
height opposite to it. It is so singularly fruitful, so 
strewed with vines, so studded with towers. It looks 
like a wide-set city. It seems the richest spot in the 
neighbourhood ; " quite a hill the horn of oil " (Isa. v. 
1, 2, see margin), and has, I suppose, been cultivated 
from time immemorial. And these towers, — these Hha- 
zorim, are they not the remains of the fenced places of 
the Anakim which Caleb took, — once for war only, now 
for protection and defence, kept up or rebuilded on the 
old ruins ? In one place, indeed, it is said in a general 
way that Joshua gave him " Hebron for an inheri- 
tance/' (Josh. xiv. 13) ; but elsewhere the more special 
statement is made, that while Hebron itself and its 
suburbs were given to the " children of Aaron the 
priest, to be a city of refuge for the slayer" (Josh, 
xxi 13), " the fields of the city and the villages there- 
of (Hazorim) gave they to Caleb the son of Jephun- 
neh for his possession/' (Josh. xxi. 12). This hill of 



64 



SUBURBS OF HEBRON. 



vines, with its gardens and towers, just beyond the 
suburbs, is in all likelihood the old warrior's hill, on 
the possession of which his heart seemed set, and from 
which " he drove the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, Ahi- 
man, and Talmai, the children of Anak/' (Josh. xv. 14). 

We are now in the bottom of the valley, passing be- 
tween these vineyards. The road is narrow, sufficing 
for little more than one camel at a time. We can 
understand exactly the position in which Balaam is de- 
scribed to be when " the angel of the Lord stood in a 
path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side and a 
wall on that side," (Numb. xxii. 24). The road, which 
is rough and narrow enough in itself, is made rougher 
and narrower at one point by the giving way of the dry 
wall on the left side. In one or two places we see it bulg- 
ing out, — " a bowing wall and a tottering fence" (Psa. 
lxii. 3) ; in others it lies prostrate, the soil and the vines 
coming down along with it, as the garden to the west 
is evidently above the level of the road. 

" Therefore shall this iniquity be to you 
As a breach ready to fall, 
A swelling in a high wall, 

Whose breaking cometh suddenly, at an instant." 

(Isaiah xxx. 13.) 

Now we ascend our last height, — the skirt of Caleb's 
mountain, — over terraces and amid olives, the road rough 
and stony. As we clear the isolated trees at the top, and 
turn the ridge, the old city spreads out before us in the 
sunshine. It is the first real city of Palestine that we 



HEBRON IN SIGHT. 



65 



have seen ; hitherto we have had nothing but villages or 
ruins. It is the oldest too ; neither Sidon nor Jeru- 
salem have an ancestry like this. Even Egypt bows 
before it. It was built seven years before Zoan in 
Egypt (Num. xiii. 22) ; yet Zoan lies with her ruins, 
lost amid the sand-drift. Hebron still stands erect, — 
a noble city to look upon, — built broadly up in massive 
strength against the long slope of yon olive-shaded hill, 
right before us. 

Kirjath-Arba ! City of the old giant race, the race of 
massive strength and mighty stature, the Titans of 
fable, the Eephaim of history, who, perhaps, ascending 
from Egypt, took first possession of this land after the 
dispersion, and who so firmly seated themselves amid 
these hills, and down the vales and plains to the sea, 
that many an age elapsed ere their last roots were ex- 
tirpated ! Cradle of Isaac, Jerome calls it. One feels 
more inclined to call it cradle of the giants, — yes, 
cradle, citadel, metropolis, all in one. City of Arba 
and Anak ; city of Abraham and David, — still retain- 
ing something of its lordliness of aspect, as we look on 
it from this height ; and still maintaining in its sixteen 
Arab villages that own the sway of its Sheikh, some 
traces of its ancient power. But between the Anakim 
chiefs of Kirjath-Arba and the Arab Sheikh of El- 
Khulil, the difference is wide enough. 

We make our way slowly down the rugged slope, 
with the city all the while in view, — some of us on foot, 
some of us preferring to trust the surer feet of our 

E 



66 



QUARANTINE. 



camels, on a road so stony and precipitous. Our " board 
of health " guard, who has accompanied us from Dha- 
hariyah, goes before us to announce our arrival to the 
master of the quarantine. Several of the " citizens w of 
Hebron are standing at a little distance to get a look at 
the strangers ; but they dare not venture to approach, 
as we are still supposed to be loaded with the infection of 
Egypt. After standing for a few minutes in front of 
the building to see the city more fully, we turn round 
and pass through the archway and gate into the court, 
and are soon unpacked and at rest, after a fatiguing 
though not long journey, for it is not more than half- 
past two o'clock. The quarantine house is a new one, 
neatly built, and tolerably commodious. It looks clean 
and comfortable. We mount some twenty rough steps 
to reach the upper story of the great central square, 
along the front of which a gallery runs. Here are our 
apartments, with doors and windows facing the town, 
which lies in its full beauty, recumbent against the 
lower part of the hill before us. 

As we are resting and admiring the view, our drago- 
man shouts to us from below, " Bad news, gentlemen/' 
What ! Is there a storm at hand ? Are the natives 
about to attack us ? Are we to be hindered from reach- 
ing Jerusalem ? No ; but we must spend four days 
here in quarantine. Four days ! That is by no means 
pleasant, especially as we are caged within these walls. 
We find, however, that the four days are but two, in 
point of fact. This day on which we arrive counts one, 



VIEW FROM THE QUARANTINE HOUSE. 67 

and the day on which we start counts another ; so that 
we have but two days' delay after all, or rather only 
one, for the " day of rest" we had counted on. We had 
hoped to reach Jerusalem on Monday, — we must wait 
till Tuesday ; this is all. If we can only get out of our 
prison, and have leave to roam abroad, we shall not 
mind the delay. We inquire as to this hope of liberty, 
but are told that it is not likely to be realised ; at 
all events, nothing can be said till the physician of the 
Hebron Board of Health makes his appearance, which 
will be soon. His apartments are here, in the front 
part of the building, over the gateway ; but he is out 
at present. In a little he comes. He is a German, and 
can talk only German and Arabic. We cannot be 
allowed to get out, to-night at least. He is inexorable. 
The welfare of the whole city of El-Khulil depends on 
his rigid adherence to the sanitary regulations. We 
are infected, or, at least, assumed to be so, and we must, 
at least, wait a night to see whether or not the plague 
appear on us. He does not take the trouble to examine 
us, but stands yonder on the opposite roof, with his fez 
cap, giving his instructions. Perhaps a dollar might 
remove all infection from us and open the gate ; but we 
do not feel inclined to tempt him, especially as the even- 
ing draws on, and we should have little time to see 
anything. We submit, and content ourselves with 
walking to and fro along the gallery, admiring the view. 
Right in front of us is the mosque that covers the cave 
of Machpelah, and that of itself is enough for the pre- 



68 



CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 



sent. We cannot withdraw our eyes from it. and the 
words of Jacob seem ever echoing from yon hill, — 
" Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the 
field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the 
field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land 
of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of 
Ephron the Hittite, for a possession of a burying-place. 
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there 
they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife ; and there I 
buried Leah." (Gen. xlix. 29, 31.)* 

* Jbn Batutah (a.d. 1326) gives U3 a full account of both the facts and 
fictions connected with Hebron and its Mosque. "Voyages," pp. 114-119. 
(Asiatic Society Edition). The latter, he tells us, was erected by the 
genii or gins, at the command of Solomon. Felix Fdbri, about a century 
later, gives us a good description of both. But as he was not a Moslem, 
he was refused admittance into the Mosque and " double cave," though 
he offered to pay well for it. The " Saracens," he says, told him that it 
was a place of greater sanctity than the Mosque at Jerusalem. They 
tantalized him by telling him of its ever-burning lamps suspended from 
golden fasteners, on silken and silver chains ; of the ceaseless service of 
song night and day. " Evagatorium," vol. ii. pp. 349, 350. I need not 
quote the description which almost every eastern traveller has given of 
this. A letter from Mr Nicolayson, of June 13, 1835, tells us that the 
Moslems of Syria reckoned the earthquakes of that year as judgments 
upon the land f >r the defilement of the place by some fellahs, who, enraged 
that the saints were not hearing their prayers for deliverance from the 
Pasha's oppression, insulted the buried patriarchs by fillirg the sacred 
cave with dried dung, and setting it on fire as incense ! — Jewish Intelli- 
ge)icer for Sept. 1835 Of Jewish travellers see Pe'achia (edited by 
Benisch), pp. 62, 63 ; Asher's Benjamin of Tudela, vol. i. p. 75, vol. ii. 
pp. 91, 427. 



CHAPTER IV. 



HEBRON — LAZARETTO MACHPEL AH — MOSLEM BURYING-GROUND KUR* 

MUL NEBI-LUT HAMMAM FOREXS — TEFFUTH BIR-SHIRAH. 

Hebron, Feb. 17. 1856. We were not sorry that our 
first Sabbath in Palestine should be at Hebron. The 
day and the place suited each other well ; and we could 
the more quietly and the more genially go back to the 
olden time, and dwell amid its memories. Age has not 
altered the scene, nor made its recollections stale * 

True, the present city is not old. Its houses are not 
Jewish ; its inhabitants are not sons of Abraham ; nor 
do these nine minarets speak to us of Abraham, or 
David, or Christ, but of Mahomet alone. Yet under- 
neath Moslem rubbish we can discern the relics of an 

* The Moslem name for Hebron is El-KhulU or Khalil, as we have al- 
ready noticed. In all Mahommedan writers, such as Ibn-Batutah, this is 
the one name employed. In the old Arabic history of the temple of J erusa- 
lem {a.d. 1444) we several times read of "Abraham THE FRIEND, prayer 
and peace be with him," (p. 103, Oriental transl. fund edition) : "a cer- 
tain individual, of great strength and courage, ascended the steep rock 
wherein was the cave, and found our Lord, the FRIEND, (the peace and 
blessing of God be with him) lying in his coffin, on his back," (p. 106). 
The epithet is taken from Scripture, " the friend of God," (2 Chron. xx. 
7 ; lsa. xli. 8 ; Isa. ii. 23). 



70 



HEBROX. 



earlier and holier day. The coin itself is genuine, though 
defaced and worn ; and beneath its thick rust we can 
read the old u image and superscription " on the one 
side the figure of the aged patriarch, and on the other, 
" Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him 
for righteousness." 

Beersheba is an utter waste, with only low mounds 
of stones here and there, to say that it once was ; but 
Hebron is still a town ; and in the distance at least, a 
town of some beauty and stateliness. Jerusalem is not 
a mere waste, like Beersheba, but the plough has so 
often passed over it ; its parts have been so displaced 
and mangled ; its very rubbish tossed hither and thither, 
that the present does not seem the representative of the 
city of Melchizedek, but only the last of a hundred succes- 
sors, each one different from the preceding. But the pre- 
sent Hebron, though not the city of Arba, or of Abraham, 
or of David, appears more truly the representative of its 
original, and carries us back to it by fewer steps or links. 
That which lies before us now gives us no untrue idea 
of what the ancient city may have been. The olives of 
Gethsemane may not be the same trees as existed two 
thousand years ago, but they probably spring from the 
same roots ; so Hebron is not the veritable city of the 
old age, but it comes very near it ; it springs directly 
from the old stem. The breaks or intervals between 
the present and the past of Hebron are neither so many 
nor so perceptible as in other places. Lying less in the 
way of the conqueror, whether of the east or west, 



HEBRON. 



71 



Babylonian or Roman, Saracen or Crusader, it has not 
known so many overturnings as the cities of the less for- 
tunate north. 

The early history of the city is the divine commen- 
tary on faith. The outstanding feature of its long story 
is the life of one believing man. It was that life that 
rose before us now, and spread itself out, in all its shapes 
and aspects, over these rocks, and slopes, and hollows. 
The inscription graven upon them seemed to be, " fear 
not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great 
reward/' (Gen. xv. 1). 

Hebron was one of the six cities of refuge (J osh. xx. 
7), and, being such, it was understood to be visible in all 
directions from a considerable distance, according to the 
Rabbis. But though on some sides less shut in than 
others, and visible from the adjoining heights, I ques- 
tion whether it could have been at any time an object 
generally visible from any great distance on any side. 
The Jewish tradition that in the light of the morning 
sun it was visible from Jerusalem, is certainly a fable 
or a mistake.* What the "gleams as far as Hebron " 
may mean, is not easy to say ; but that the sunbeams, 
shining on the walls or roofs of Hebron, should be so 
reflected as to be seen at J erusalem is an unlikely thing. 

* Reland gives the sentence from Maimonides in which this is affirmed, 
(Palestina p. 710). But Maimonides there speaks of Hebron as eastward 
of Jerusalem ; and it may be questioned whether he can mean the same 
Hebron as the city of Arba ; for surely a Jew such as Maimonides would 
not speak of such a well-known city, as east of Jerusalem. 



72 



CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 



The whole city is full in view ; for the quarantine 
house which we occupy is on the opposite ascent, so that 
while part of the town lies under our feet, a large part 
of it stretches up the hill which faces us. The chief 
attraction to our eye, however, is the Moslem Mosque 
that covers the Cave of Machpelah. It makes but a poor 
tombstone for Abraham ; yet beneath it his ashes really 
lie. For I see no ground for questioning the concurring 
testimony of all ages, and nations, and sects, as to this 
being really the spot which Abraham purchased from 
Ephron the Hittite, as a burying-place. It might be, 
w T ith truth, said, that we have the same evidence for 
this spot being Ephron's cave as we have for this town 
being Hebron. Of all places in the land this was the 
one which was surest of being known by the J ew r s. It 
is not likely that they would be mistaken as to the 
tomb of Abraham ; nor is there any chasm or interval 
in the history of the city, during which the original spot 
could be lost sight of and another substituted in its 
room. Hebron has always been inhabited by Jews ; 
and amid all its changes, Christian and Mahommedan, 
it has never ceased to be Jewish, and it is to this day 
one of their four holy cities. Cast out of almost every 
other city of the land, they have still retained footing 
here. J ewish veneration for, and adhesion to, the sacred 
spots of their fathers are like their reverence for every 
letter and point of their sacred books, superstitiously 
unchangeable. Covetous and pliable as a Jew is thought 
to be, yet no hope of gain, ho fear of suffering, no love 



ITS AUTHENTICITY. 



73 



of life, will make him alter one jot in his alphabet or 
one line in his topography. 

When we add to this the appearance of the stones in 
the more ancient part of the mosque, the links in this 
J ewish chain are as complete as they are strong. These 
stones, — some of them thirty-eight feet long, — hewn and 
bevelled like the temple stones at Jerusalem — are mani- 
festly Jewish, and most probably of the age of Solo- 
mon.* They are vouchers for the authenticity of the 
spot, and shew us how ancient and unfaltering has been 
the tradition of the Jews upon the matter. The tomb 
was no doubt known to David and Solomon ; and here 
are, to this day, the unmoved stones of the marble 
monuments, erected, as Josephus says, by Abraham and 
his descendants, — monuments still standing in the time 
of the historian, *f- — monuments which the Romans did 
not touch, against which the Christians placed their 
Church, and which the Moslem has made use of as the 
wall of his mosque. Very few historical or topographi- 
cal chains are so perfect and so tangible as this.J 

* Ibn-Batutah mentions the stones ; I give the words of his French 
translator : " Sa mosquee est cTun joli travail, d'une construction solide, 
d'une grande beaute et fort elevee. Elle est batie en pierres de taille, et 
dans un de ses angles il y en a une dont un cote a t rente- sept empans." 
Voyages, p. 114. 

+ Josephus, Jewish War, pp. 4, 9, 7. 

£ It would appear from Eusebius that the Romans had done what they 
could to defile the place by the erection of heathen monuments. These 
were destroyed by order of Constantine, and a Christian church built on the 
spot. Euseb Life of Const. Ciampini de Sacris aedificiis a Const. Magn. con- 
structs, p. 164. Quaresmius; Elucid. Terrae Sanctae. Ciampini speaks 



74 



ABRAHAM S TESTIMONY. 



Another thing that strengthens this chain is the re- 
lative position of Mam re and the Cave of Machpelah. 
The cave is said to be " before Mamre/' and that ex- 
pression is not an indefinite one, so that the question 
might come np " which is behind and whichSsJbefore f 
The Hebrew words when used topographically always 
denote the east, and accordingly we find Machpelah 
lying east of Mamre.* Not perhaps due east, but only 
a point or so to the south of it. From this balcony 
where we stand, we do not indeed see the plain and the 
oak ; but we see the direction in which they lie ; and 
we can judge as to their relative positions. 

This wish to identify Abraham's tomb has in it some- 
thing better than superstition, and something higher 
than curiosity. The identification of Wurka as the Ur 
of the Chaldees, and the birth-place of the patriarch, 
does not seem to us so interesting as the identification 
of yon mosque-buried cave as the site of his tomb. For 
the great point on which Abraham's testimony bore was 
resurrection ; and the terminating point of the divine 

of a treatise on this church by Nicephorus (of Constantinople, I suppose, 
in the beginning of the ninth century). The Jews say it was a synagogue 
which was converted into a church. Benjamin of Tudela. vol i. p. 76. 

* See the dissertation of C. B. Michaelis de locorum differentia ratione, 
&c. Sect. viii. pp. 90, 91. Gesenius, Lexicou, p. 6S0. Journal of Sacred 
Literature, Oct. 1851. p. 154, The quarters of the compass are conven- 
tionally referred by the Hebrews to the position of a spectator fronting 
the rising sun. Since the jront is the east, and the right hand the south, 
the left must be the north, and behind the west." The hill to which gttia- 
son carried the gates of Gaza was " before Hebron " (Judges, xvi. 3). that 
is east of Hebron, perhaps the hill to which Abraham went up to look 
down on Sodom. 



RESURRECTION. 



75 



testimony to the relationship subsisting between the 
patriarchs and the God who had entered into covenant 
with them, was the same. " As touching THE RESUR- 
RECTION OF THE DEAD, have ye not read that which was 
spoken unto yon by God, saying, I am the God of Abra- 
ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? 
God is not the God of the DEAD but of the living/' 
(Matt. xxii. 31 , 32). And it was this same testimony 
that was embodied in the anxiety shewn by these patri- 
archs " concerning their bones/' One feels that it is 
round the TOMB of Abraham, — the place where his dust 
lies waiting for resurrection, — that a special, and a not 
unreasonable, interest gathers. It is this tomb, above 
others, that is the intimation of patriarchal faith and 
hope. And it would seem that just as Moses' tomb 
was so carefully concealed that no man knoweth of his 
sepulchre to this day, because his great testimony was 
of other things, so Abraham's tomb has been so fully 
kept in view, and so signally preserved from mistake or 
doubt, because his was a special testimony, in life and 
in death, to resurrection. 

While the tomb of Abraham is the special object of 
attraction in the distance,* the Moslem burying-ground 
lying just under our walls, and stretching down from 

* Yet there is no great external attraction, though Moslem writers are 
large in their praises. Felix Fabri says more truly, " Post terrae sanctse 
araissionem fecerunt Sarraceni ex ecclesia muscheam, et altis muris et 
turribus earn muniverunt et ita hodie stat in civitatis medio, sicut forte 
castrum, nec habet aspectum ecclesiae, sed castri vol grandis palatii." 
Evagatorium, vol. ii. p. 350. 



76 



MOURNERS. 



them to the city, draws our eye towards itself, as kin- 
dred to the other. It is only Mahommedans that are 
buried here. The Jews' grave-yard is not in sight, and 
I know not where the Christians of other days were 
buried. A funeral procession has come and gone, with 
nothing remarkable about it. But the frequent groups 
of mourners interest us, reminding us of John xi. 31 , 
" She goeth unto the grave to weep there/' They were 
mostly women, with the well-known white shawl over 
their heads, though in one or two instances we saw 
men also. They sat round the tomb for perhaps half 
an .hour, and then went away, to return again to-morrow. 
They wore their ordinary dresses, and had no outward 
badge of sorrow. They had a sort of wail, yet not loud 
nor distinct, and often exchanged for the generalities of 
conversation, as they were seated together on the tomb- 
stones or on the heaving ground. Few things can be 
imagined more picturesque and striking than these 
w r hite-robed groups sitting round the broken turf of a 
new-made grave. The numerous tombstones, too, all 
of white stone, some smaller, some larger, sprinkled 
over the field, and dotting, like snow-drops, the surface 
of the half-green, half-grey mounds, added a dreamy 
softness to the repose of the scene. Putting together 
the various parts of the view, the distant as well as the 
near, Machpelah as well as this Moslem grave-yard, the 
shadows seemed to pass off, and we could feel as if it 
were not so much life that was linked with death, as 
death that was linked with life for ever. 



JEWISH BURYING-GROUND. 



77 



Towards evening we were allowed to quit our lazaretto 
for an hour, with a guard to prevent us entering the 
town. We wandered slowly out a little way, to breathe 
the fresh air of the hills ; and it was wonderful to ob- 
serve what an additional zest one day's confinement 
had imparted to earth and sky. We moved in a some- 
what north-westerly direction, passing a large deep well 
called Ain-el-Gedida (which I suppose means the 
" new well"), and a very old deep well, not far from 
the cemetery, overshadowed with olives cut out of the 
rock, roofed with several arches, all underground. The 
descent to it is by a flight of steps. It is the finest 
well that we have seen. Here we came to the ruins 
of the deir or convent, on a height, from which it 
is said there is a passage to the mosque, which must 
be a mile or more distant. A few minutes brought 
us to the Jewish burying-ground. Most of the tomb- 
stones are so large that they appear like masses of 
the rock laid bare, or the tombstones of giants, all 
lying flat. Probably this has been a burying-ground 
from the days of Abraham. Thousands of his children 
are sleeping below. We saw a large ruin, like a castle, 
close at hand, which we mean to examine more fully 
to-morrow. In the distance, more than two miles off, 
we got a glimpse of Abraham's tree, which is planted 
in the only part of the district where there is a plain. 
Near us, we were shewn Abraham's well, carefully built 
over. Having thus breathed the fine bracing air of 
these hillsides for half an hour, amid olives and figs and 



78 



KURMUL. 



prickly pears, we wandered slowly back, as the shadows 
w r ere falling. Every step we have taken seemed an 
illustration of some scene of Old Testament story. 

Re-entering our sanitary prison we got a charcoal 
fire kindled in one of our too-well-ventilated rooms ; 
and seated round it w 7 e enjoyed our tea, — gathering to- 
gether in our conversation, the fragments of Scripture 
history which we had been searching out, in connection 
with the scene around. 

Hebron, Monday, Feb, 18th. — We are still under 
restraint, and have had to pass the morning and fore- 
noon in durance. About one, however, we were allowed 
to set out for a walk, under the charge of a keeper. 
Our guide shewed us the birket or pool near the laza- 
retto ; and after this led us up the hill w r hich lies some- 
what to the south. From this he pointed out the site 
of Kurmul, the ancient town of Garmel, mentioned as 
one of Judah's mountain-cities (Josh. xv. 55), in which 
Saul " set up a place " after the overthrow of Amalek 
(] Sam. xv. 1 2),* and where Nabal the " man of Belial/' 
the churlish "millionaire/' with whom no one dared 
speak, had his possessions, (1 Sam. xxv. 2, 17, 25). 
On the eastern hill our guide pointed out the tomb of 
Lot, Nebi Lilt, or as I suppose it ought to be given in 

* Id 2 Sam. xviii. 18, the pillar set up by Absalom is called " Absalom's 
place," or in the Hebrew "Absalom's hand." Saul's "place" was pro- 
bably a monument. Rabbi Tanchum, in his Arabic Commentary on 
Samuel, affirms that it was a house or building or separate place, as in 
Deut. xxiii. 12, where the word is the same. See Haarbruecker's trans- 
lation of Tanchum, Leipsic 1844, p. 22. 



lot's tomb. 



79 



full, Ruber Nebi Lut, the tomb of the prophet Lot.* 
Who has fixed this hill for the sepulchre of this 
"righteous man" (2 Pet. ii. 8), and erected the tomb, 
I know not. The hill could not certainly be the one 
to which Lot fled after the ruin of Sodom (Gen. xix. 
30), for that seems to have been hard by Zoar ; but it 
may be the hill to which Abraham accompanied the 
angel of the Lord, and from which he viewed next 
morning the ascending " smoke of the country/' (Gen. 
xix. 27, 28). 

On we wandered, turning westward, over the heights 
which look down from the south upon the town. As 
we descended, we came to rich fields of dark brown 
soil ; enclosed with dry stone walls, and well cultiva- 
ted by the hand of man. The plough was not there, 
for it was evidently not a grain country ; nor did we 
come upon wide pasturages ; this part at least was evi- 
dently not for flocks and herds. It seemed to be one 
vast orchard, in which were springing all kinds of fruit- 
trees, some on terraces, some on more level and open 
fields. Some of the trees we could not recognise, as 
no bud of spring was as yet visible upon them. But 

* lbn-Batutah mentions this. " The Tomb of Lot may he seen set on 
a lofty hill, which commands the country called Ghaour, or low region, 
of Syria. Below this sepulchre is a beautiful building, and the tomb is 
inclosed in one of its chambers. Close to this you see the Sea of Lot. . . . 
At the side of the Tomb of Lot is the mosque which is called Mesdjid-el- 
yahin (temple of truth), which is situated on a lofty hill. It possesses a 
clearness and splendour which no other enjoys to such a degree. There 
is only a single habitation in its neighbourhood, which is occupied by its 
keeper."— Voyages, p. 118. 



80 



THE PRUNING OF THE VINE. 



we knew at least the olive, the fig, and the vine. With 
the last the husbandman was busy, carefully pruning 
them and tying their curving stems to the strong-set 
staves. The long and regular rows of these vines must 
form cool walks for July days to the inhabitants of 
Hebron. Some of our party, anxious for a Hebron 
vine, got one or two small shoots, which, " hermetically 
sealed " at the section, with good collodion, were 
despatched home by post.* The prunings of the vine 
were heaped together for burning, — no part of the vine 
being useful for any domestic or agricultural purpose, — 
" Men gather them and cast them into the fire and 
they are burned/' (John xv. 6). 
Son of man ! 

What is the vine-wood more than any wood ? 

A branch which is among the trees of the forest ! 

Shall wood be taken from it to do any work ? 

Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon ? 

Lo ! it is cast into the fire for fuel : 

The fire devoureth both ends of it, (root and branch), 

And the midst of it is burnt, (stem). 

Is it meet for work ? 

Lo ! when it was whole it was meet or no work ; 
How much less is it meet for work 
When the fire hath devoured it, 
And it is burned." (Ezek. xv. 2-5). 

* They reached Scotland in good condition, and were immediately set. 
They have not " struck" however. I was more fortunate in a piece of 
prickly pear, one of whose cactus-like knobs I took possession of and de- 
posited in my portmanteau. After lying there for three months, and 
tossing about by sea and land, it was safely transferred to a hot-house, 
in which it is now living at least, if not growing. 



BIR-SHIRAH. 



81 



As we moved on (still on high ground) we saw a well, 
which our guide called Hammam Forens, which name 
seems to indicate some connection with a hot spring. I 
am not aware, however, of any such waters in this 
neighbourhood. A little farther on we came to another 
well, called Bir Abu Tabakeh. This seemed a very fine 
well indeed. Does it take its name from Tebah the 
son of Nahor, which the Septuagint gives as Tabeh 
(Gen. xxii. 24) ? We descended into the plain in which 
Abraham's tree is growing. Our guide called it Wady 
Tttpheh, or Teffuh, a remnant of the ancient name of 
Tappuah, (Josh. xii. 17 ; xv. 34), indicating, perhaps, 
that the wady had once been famous for its apple-trees. 
Proceeding onwards, we reached another well, called 
Bir-Shirah. At first I thought that this name might 
connect itself with Sarah. Again, I was inclined to 
identify it with the " well of Sirah/' mentioned in that 
part of Abner's history which is connected with David's 
residence at Hebron. " When Joab was come out from 
David, he sent messengers after Abner, which brought 
him again from the well of Sirah" (2 Sam. iii. 26). But 
there is a difficulty in regard to this. No doubt Sirah 
must have been near Hebron, and on some road or track 
leading northward ; for Abner was returning to the 
land of Benjamin. So far all is clear. But then Jose- 
phus says, quite explicitly, that Abner was overtaken 
at a place called Besira, (a corruption or contraction of 
Beer-Sirah), and that this Besira was twenty stadia 
from Hebron, whereas the Bir-Sirah which we saw 



F 



82 



THE WELL OF SIRAH. 



could not be so much. I thought, perhaps, that this 
might be explained by the town of Hebron, in its 
earlier days, lying more to the east than it does at pre- 
sent. But then, elsewhere, Josephus says that Abra- 
ham's tree was but six stadia from Hebron. In which 
case the well of Sirah must have been to the north-west 
of that tree, not to the south-east, as Bir-Sirah is now. 
Then, on the other hand, we have J erome shewing us 
that Abraham's terebinth was, at least, two miles from 
Hebron, which statement is not easily made to square 
with that of Josephus as to the six stadia. It is hard 
to reconcile these conflicting statements ; and J osephus's 
measurement is so much at variance with other testi- 
monies, as well as with the present position of places, 
that we are inclined to dispute its accuracy. It is not 
impossible, after all, that this Bir-Sirah may really be 
" the well of Sirah/' * At least there is less likelihood 
of its having undergone an alteration of site than there 
is of the other parts of the scene having done so. Both 
the tree and the city seem to have changed their places 
during the last seventeen or eighteen hundred years, the 
latter lying more eastward and the former more west- 
ward than once they did. In Abraham's day the cave of 
Machpelah was not in the city as it is now, but was 
alone in a field ; and so it remained for many a cen- 

* I ought to notice that old travellers speak of " the well of Sarah. " 
Rabbi Petachia, in the twelfth century, writes, "by the tree is the well 
of Sarah ; its waters are clear and sweet. Close by Mamre is a plain, and 
an the other side there are about a hundred cubits from the well of Sarah 
k> the well of Abraham."— Travels, edited by Benisch, p. 67. 



Abraham's tree. 



83 



tury, down perhaps to the beginning of the Christian 
era. After that the city seems to have crept down the 
valley, and gathered itself round the sepulchre.* 

We soon reached Abraham's tree. It is a magnifi- 
cent Ballut or prickly oak, somewhat isolated, yet with 
other trees not far off. The protruding knots of root 
at its base looked almost like pieces of dark brown rock. 
The stem is enormous ; and as rough and shapeless as 
can be fancied. The branches, spreading widely in seve- 
ral detachments, and with their extremities drooping 
to the sward, throw their shade over a vast circle. It 
stands near the foot of an easy rising ground. — in as 
pleasant a valley as one could wish to see, with ter- 
raced hills close at hand, before and behind. The day 
was bright, with light clouds floating above, and a quiet 
breeze wandering about, to bring down the heat. There 
was not enough of sunshine to oppress, but enough to 
give a mellow brilliance to the landscape, and to cover, 
with a soft gladness, a scene of no common interest 
and beauty. For two hours we lingered on the spot, 
sitting on the projecting knots of the rugged roots, 
picking up the scattered acorns of last autumn, which 
were lying around in thousands, though most of them 
worm-eaten or decayed ; — cutting off some twigs or 

* The old historians speak of Hebron as on the side of a hill. See 
Edrisi and Ibn Haukal, quoted by Asher in bi3 edition of Benjamin Tudela, 
vol. ii. p. 92. Asher, quoting from D'Arvieux, says " Hebron formerly 
stood on a hill to the uorth, but it has gradually changed its site in the 
course of its various rebuildings." Ib. Benjamin of Tudela says that in 
his day the ruins of the old city on the hill were visible. Vol. i. p. 76. 



84 



WELLS. 



branches as memorials, and gazing round us in all direc- 
tions upon hill, and rock, and vale. The noon-breeze, 
as it once or twice slightly shook the foliage above us, 
was most grateful. As this is the month of February, 
and as the tree is in full leaf, we were satisfied that it 
was an evergreen. All the trees around were bare, wait- 
ing for spring. It alone had not parted with its leaves. 
Judging by the eye, and guessing the length of road 
by which we had reached it, we should say that it was 
considerably within a mile of the town. 

Returning home we passed an old well called A in 
Arb, which seems to retain the old name of the city and 
its founder. Was this Avba's well, somewhere beyond 
the walls of Kirjath Arba ? We came to another well 
called Ain Medan, which may be the memorial of Medan, 
the son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2), whom 
he sent away with gifts "eastward, unto the east country''' 
(Gen. xxv. 6). We saw another well, Ain AmiXs, 
which may perhaps be a remembrance of Amasai, the 
chief of the captains of the children of Judah and Ben- 
jamin, who " came to David at Hebron, ready armed 
for war, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him according 
to the word of the Lord/' (1 Chron. xii. 18, 23). Pass- 
ing up through Kubev-el-Yehudi, or Jewish burying- 
ground, we saw another w r ell, Bir Laun, which I can- 
not connect with any name in Scripture. The hill oppo- 
site is called Jebel Belun, which is not unlike the word 
Laun just noted ; but it mqre nearly resembles Bealoth, 
a town in the south of Judah mentioned by Joshua (xv. 



AN OLD CASTLE. 



85 



24) ; only Bealoth must have lain much farther south. 
We looked into another well on our route, Bir Abll- 
A yd, but what may be its place in story I know not. 
The whole region is full of wells dug in the rock and 
still carefully preserved, — indications of a larger city 
and a more numerous population than are at present 
to be found here. 

Among the many ruins which we saw, none interested 
us more than an old castle, already referred to. It is not 
far from the Jewish burying-ground, and is surrounded 
with fields, and fruit-trees, and prickly pears. It has 
been a place of considerable strength, though now little 
more than the walls remain. These walls are no doubt 
old ; but they are not the oldest part of it. The tombs 
under it are evidently of a very ancient date, quite pos- 
sibly as far back as the time of Abraham.* There are 
five or six of them in an under chamber or cell, which 
you have to stoop very low, or rather to crawl, in order 
to enter. Having entered the outer chamber you find 
the rocky roof somewhat higher than the entrance, but 
still low. Between the entrance and the actual tombs 
there is a hollow which seemed to us like a filled up 
well ; or perhaps it might be a descent to a lower range 
of tombs. On the inner side of this were the tombs 

* I thought at first that this was the place noted by Jewish topogra- 
phers as the tomb of Abner ; but they speak of that as only a bowshot from 
the cave, and west of it, whereas this must be more, and also south-west, 
not west. Zunz. Geogr. of Pal. Asher's Benjamin, vol. ii. p. 437. I do 
not know whether this may not be what some have given as the tomb of 
Othniel. — Narrative of Scotch Deputation^. 182. 



86 



PALACE OF EFHRON. 



themselves. These were about seven feet long, run- 
ning inwards, and about two or three feet broad, each 
of which had probably held a coffin or sarcophagus, 
which however had disappeared. There was no masonry 
about them ; they were cut out of the rock, so many 
on the right and left, and so many in the centre, facing 
the entrance. We crept into them with our lights, but 
found nothing save a little dry soil or dust. On coming- 
out we observed on one side of the castle, a carved 
entrance to another subterraneous vault or chamber* but 
it was closed. The stones above the aperture or door 
were ornamented. 

Our guide called this Kdsr Nadr HabvAn, the palace 
or castle of Habrun* At first this appeared to me to 
be the name of the old city Hebron, before its Arab 
conquerors gave it the name of El-Khulil. But this is 
not likely. The city has changed its name with each 
successive occupant, Kirjath-Arba, Hebron, El-Khulil ; 
but the two former seem to have quite perished. But 
then Hdbrun is the modern native pronunciation of 
Epkron ;"f* and it seems likely this is the old residence 
of Ephron the Hittite, or at least a structure built above 

* The meaning of Nadr I am not sure of, but see Index under Kasr. 

| See the conversation between Dr Wilson and the Sheikh of Hebron. 
" When speaking of Abraham I alluded to the Scripture account of his 
purchase of the Cave of Machpelah, 'Aye,' said he, ' Ibrahim was a man 
of no common strength of intellect; he did Habrun to some purpose. 
Ibrahim asked merely as much ground as could be covered with a cow's 
hide ; but after the agreement was concluded, he cut the hide into thongs 
and surrounded the whole space now forming the Haram.' "—Lands of 
the Bible, vol. i p. 361. 



EPHKON AND ABRAHAM. 



87 



his tomb, whether in after ages or not we cannot say. 
Was it to this spot that he came and found for himself 
a tomb after he had generously given up Machpelah to 
the stranger ? Yes, generously, for there is no proof of 
the construction put upon the transaction by Kitto and 
others, that he was merely acting a part and speaking 
fine words, as Arabs do in the present day. The 
modern misconstruction of Ephron's politeness has as 
little to found upon, as the Arab tradition, just cited, 
has for Abraham's cunning. 



CHAPTER V. 



hebron machpelah the streets — manufactures — pools — 

road to jerusalem solomons pools — solomon's gardens 

aqueduct bethlehem shepherd's plain er - ram 

Rachel's tomb — beit-jalah — rephaim — Jerusalem. 

Hebron, Feb. 19. 1856. — About half-past six, walked 
out on the terrace of our dwelling. The sun was rising, 
and the grey tops of the many hills around were taking 
on the dayspring, telling us that the sun had now 
cleared the hills of Moab, and was again giving day to 
"Immanuers land." Gradually the sunlight crept down 
the slopes, half-silver and half-gold, like a tide, breaking 
over the bare rocks and throwing its spray upon the 
olives. The light and shade of the square white houses 
came broadly out ; mosque and minaret stood up in 
their best beauty ; and the burying-ground beneath us 
looked almost gay, as the light passed over turf and 
tomb. . . . Beautiful ! . . . 

Being now considered clean, we were released from 
quarantine. After an early breakfast we walked through 
the streets, which we found dark, dirty, and full of 
holes, like those of other Eastern towns. We took as 



CAVE OF MACHPELAH. 



89 



good a look at the mosque as our time admitted of ; 
but, not being permitted to enter, we only saw a little of 
its exterior wall. Even of this one cannot get a right 
view, as the whole building is wedged in among houses, 
and would be quite buried were it not somewhat higher 
than its neighbours. The walls of its outer square are 
formed of very large stones, hewn and cut like those in 
the ancient parts of Jerusalem ; and as David prepared 
much of the stonework in Solomon's temple, it may be 
that these curious stones are the traces of his hands, 
during the seven years when he was king in Hebron, 
(1 Chron. xxii. 2-1 4). As, however, so many elaborate 
descriptions have been given of this mosque, which Jew, 
Christian, and Moslem all hold in veneration as be- 
ing really Abraham's burying-place, I need not give 
details.* 

Moslem fanaticism has shut this cave against the 
world ; and nowhere is this fanaticism wilder or more 
reckless than in El-Khulil. The Jewish temple had its 
great court open to all ; Christian churches and cathe- 
drals invite all to enter ; only Mahommedanism, with 
peculiar exclusiveness, closes every gate of its mosques 
against the stranger. 

Could we get access to the cave itself, we might find 
the bodies of the patriarchs still there ; or at least that 
of J acob, for we read that " the physicians embalmed 
Israel ("Gen. 1. 2) ; so that his mummy may be entire. 

* Dr Wilson, Dr Robinson, and the " Scotch Deputation," will supply 
the reader with full details. 



90 



Jacob's grave. 



We have mummies in the British Museum at least as 
old as the time of Abraham ; and if Jacob's grave has 
not been rifled, his body will be found as it was when 
laid there by his sons.* 

Yet it matters not in what form the bodies of these 
holy men may be found. The glory in reversion for 
them at " the resurrection of the just/' does not depend 
upon the contents of their tomb. They were careful 
about their bones, only that they might leave a testi- 
mony to their hope. Their wish to be gathered to their 
fathers was something more than a desire to mingle 
dust with dust. It was by such a burial that these 
three patriarchs took solemn possession of the land, 
both for themselves and for their sons. It was a three- 
fold testimony to their faith in Him whom they saw 
afar off as "the resurrection and the life." Gladly would 
they have seen him in their own day, but they were 
willing to wait for his ; content to take life through 
death, resurrection through the grave, the incorruptible 
through corruption. 

* I assume that Jacob was buried in Macphelah, according to Gen. 1. 
13, " they buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah." According 
to the statement of the martyr Stephen, he was first carried to Sichem, 
as is implied indeed in the route which the funeral procession took (Gen. 
1. 30). Stephen's words may be read thus, " and were carried over into 
Sichem, and (afterward) laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a 
sum of money,— by the sons of Emmor the father of Shechem,'' Acts vii. 
16). The sons of Emmor are thus represented as joining the ] rocession, 
and carrying the body to Shechem. Jacob's body made somewhat the 
same round as himself, visiting Peniel and Succoth, crossing the Jordan, 
and coming to Shalem and Shechem. In life Emmor received him ; in 
death the sons of Emmor (Gen. xxxiii. 18, 19). 



MANUFACTURES OF HEBRON. 



91 



We passed on through the streets to the bazaar, in 
which there was pretty much the usual amount ot 
eastern dirt and darkness ; but less than the common 
number of talking or sauntering idlers. We were early, 
and business had hardly begun. On our w r ay we passed 
one of the manufactories of those skin-bottles, or water- 
holders, which are so common in the East. We had 
seen from the quarantine one or two large spaces covered 
with rows of black objects like sheep or pigs, or rather 
like the skins of these animals laid out to dry. But we 
now saw what these black rows really were. They were 
large skin-bottles in their first state of preparation for 
use. They had been cleaned and sewed together ; but 
they require a long time of seasoning, so as to take away 
all remains of bad smell and the like. They had there- 
fore been filled with water, and laid out in rows to en- 
joy sun and air. We must not suppose that there 
are no bottles of other kinds in the East. Earthen- 
ware vessels of every size are to be seen there in com- 
mon use, even by the poor, and the vast quantity of 
broken pottery which we found in the extreme south of 
Palestine is proof that this was also the case in ancient 
times. But there seems a great difference between 
Egypt and Palestine in this matter. The latter being 
a pastoral country, and rocky everywhere, was better 
supplied with materials for bottles made of skin than 
of earth, than Egypt, which was not pastoral, but was a 
land of clay and sand, having in its soil all things need- 
ful for the potter's work. In this way we see why the 



92 



GARDEN OF HERBS. 



remains of pottery should be so much greater in Egypt 
than in Syria, and also why the southern districts of 
the latter should abound more in these broken relics 
than the northern.* 

In order to see this skin-bottle manufactory, we had 
gone out of the way a little, and as we did not wish to 
go back, we went through the enclosure where these 
vessels were lying, and made our way out at the other 
end. Before we could reach the road, however, we had 
to go through a vegetable garden, or " garden of herbs/' 
(1 Kings, xxi. 2), then to scramble over a wall, on the 
top of which was a small hedge of prickly pear. In 
Scotland we should hardly have thought it right thus to 
make free with people's gardens ; but here no one seems 
to consider it a liberty. Whether walking or riding we 
used to go right through fields which were both ploughed 
and sown. Certainly it is sometimes not the fault of 
the traveller, for the owner often ploughs up the road, 
though perhaps it is the only one, and forces the passer- 
by to trespass on his soil. In former days it was counted 
the mark of wickedness and violence thus to transgress 

* In the south of Palestine and in Egypt, but especially the latter, 
the quantity of broken pottery is quite amazing. No doubt in some parts 
this may be accounted for by the upper parts of the walls being built of 
a sort of hollow brick or cylinder, like some of the bricks used for drain- 
ing in our own country ; but still a great part of these must have been 
old useless jars cast out. They gave us an illustration of Jer. xxii. 28, 
" Is this m n Coniah a despised broken idol, is he a vessel wherein is no 
pleasure/' and H03. viii. 8, Israel "shall be among the Gentiles as a 
vessel wherein is no pleasure." 



THE POOL IN HEBRON. 



93 



and not to regard " the way of the vineyard," (Job. xxiv. 
18).* 

As we passed on we saw the large pool, a square en- 
closure, well built round, and containing a considerable 
amount of water. We thought on the scene which was 
witnessed on this spot more than 3000 years ago, when 
" David commanded his young men, and they slew 
them (the slayers of Ish-bosheth), and cut off their 
hands and feet, and hanged them up over the pool in 
Hebron/' (2 Sam. iv. 12). It was not in revenge, but 
in righteousness that the king spake. His words were 
the words of one who sought to put away the guilt of 
innocent blood from the land, and to shew what it is to 
" love an enemy/' It was in faith that he gave this 
command, publicly declaring his purpose not to be him- 
self the instrument of removing any barriers in his way 
to the throne, and his desire to receive the crown only 
at the hands of God. 

Passing through the flesh-market and slaughter, we 
found a considerable crowd, buying and selling for the 
day. The area w r as confined and filthy, there were 
pools of blood along the street, and such smells arising, 
that we were glad to hasten through, and get into the 
open grave-yard, across w T hich we passed to rejoin our 
party at the quarantina. 

* So writes a modern : — 

My son ! the road the human being travels, 
That on which blessing comes and goes, doth follow 
The river s course, the valley's playful windings, 
Curves round the corn-field and the hill of vines, 
Honouring tbe holy boanJj of property 

SchiVer, 



94 



ADJOINING PLACES. 



In a few minutes we had mounted our Syrian ponies 
and set our faces towards Jerusalem. 

Gladly sbould we have gone southwards a little, to 
visit Tell-Ziph, which represents the mountain and wil- 
derness of Ziph, where David took shelter when he fled 
from Saul (1 Sam. xxiii. 14, 15), to which Saul * went 
down with three thousand chosen men of Israel/' and 
where J onathan sought out David, and " strengthened 
his hand in God/' We should gladly have gone east- 
ward to see the frequent ruins that strew that region, 
and tell the former populousness of the land ; to wan- 
der through the " wilderness of Judea " (Matt. iii. 1), and 
climb the wild cliffs and bare white cones of Engedi, 
penetrating too, some of its endless caves and gorges. 
Pleasant it would have been to have diverged westward, 
and seen Keilah (Josh. xv. 44 ; 1 Sam. xxiii. 1, 4), and 
Lachish (J osh. xv. 39), or even to have gone as far as 
Gaza and Askkelon and the Great Sea. But we must 
move northwards without detour. 

Recrossing the Moslem burying-ground, and then 
skirting the town, we soon found ourselves on the great 
north road ; a road ancient enough I doubt not, but wo- 
fully rugged. Our desert-roads, with very few excep- 
tions, were superb when compared with this. Some- 
times over scattered stones, again over the flat or sloping 
faces of rocks, again over shingle a foot deep, again over 
mounds of debris, again along a narrow sheep-path, 
again through shrubs and jungle, sometimes, but rarely, 
over a piece of level ground, we moved along, wonder 



ROADS. 



95 



ing how our ponies contrived to stand, much more how 
they could ivcdk over such savage roads.* When the 
land was peopled, the roads were different from what we 
now see them. But with no one to care for them, no 
one to repair the tear and wear of ages, no one to replace 
the soil and embankments which the rains wash down, 
it is little wonder that all likeness to roads should have 
disappeared. The Boman roads that cross the high 
ridges of the Cheviot hills retain some traces of what 
they were, only by reason of the moist climate, which, 
nourishing grass, and moss, and heather, retains the 
soil and so preserves the outline of a road, which other- 
wise would have been long since swept away. Across 
the mountains of Northumberland and Boxburghshire 
once drove the Boman war-chariots, and, looking at the 
steeps over which they must have passed, one has less 
difficulty in understanding how the chariots of the Be- 
phaim or of Israel may have found their way between 
Hebron and Jerusalem. 

The scene was rich and the day beautiful ; nor could 
a kindlier sun have shone upon " the hill-country of 

* A recent traveller writing to a daily paper, gives as sad an account 
of the road between Damascus and Beyrut : — " Imagine the most hilly road 
in hilly Derbyshire lengthened into seventy miles, and covered in the 
most practicable parts with stones somewhat larger than those which pave 
the streets of London. When I say f covered,' I mean heaped up at the 
sides, in the centre, everywhere, just as a London street is when under 
repair. To this add, every three or four hundred yards, large pieces of 
smooth, slippery rock, which you must pass over, and which being almost 
always on a steep slope, have either to be ascended or descended, accord- 
ing to the direction in which the traveller may be going." 



96 



Solomon's pools. 



Judah," through which we were riding. The series of 
rocky undulations was endless ; and in these the grey- 
stone and the green seemed to mingle together, like 
wave and foam upon the sea. 

At half-past one we descended a rocky steep and came 
down on " Solomon's Pools/' or El-Burak as they are 
called by the natives ; but they have been so often de- 
scribed that I need not go into detail. They consist of 
three immense oblong tanks, the second slightly lower 
than the first, and the third lower than the second. 
They are massively built on all sides, but at present 
only partially filled with water.* The lowest is the 
largest, being nearly six hundred feet long, and two 
hundred broad ; the middle more than four hundred 
long and two hundred broad ; the upper somewhat less 
than five hundred feet long and about two hundred feet 
broad at an average, for in all of them the east end is 
broader than the west. They are so formed that when 
the water in the upper gains a certain height, it begins 
to pass off into the second, and when the second fills, it 
discharges its surplus w T ater into the third.*f* There can 
be no doubt that these are really the pools of which 

* The Italian traveller Laffi, who visited them in the beginning of 
1678, speaks of them a,sfull, " tutte piene di acqua," p. 399. 

f Mr Wilde notices their similarity to the fountains called Solomon's at 
Ras-el-Ain, near Tyre. He also remarks on their being " natural springs 
pent up so as to raise the water to the level of its final destination," and 
adds, " these springs were originally collected into one stream, which 
must then have formed a considerable rivulet, and running through the 
valley, discharged its waters into the Asphaltine lake."— Narrative, vol. 
ii. p. 421, 422. 



SOLOMON S POOLS. 



97 



Solomon speaks, " I made me pools of water, to water 
therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees/' (Eccl. ii. 
6). The " w T ood" or " forest" where the trees, referred 
to in the previous verse, were " brought forth/' seems to 
be that of the gardens which adorn the adjoining valley. 

The most interesting part of this erection we did not 
see ; I mean the subterraneous chambers built over the 
springs which supply the pools, and which have been, 
on account of their elaborate structure and enclosures, 
regarded as " the spring shut up, the fountain sealed/' 
(Song iv. 12). These the old travellers have frequently 
referred to but not fully described.* Several moderns 
have supplied their deficiency. 

We rested for nearly an hour in this hollow, survey- 
ing the three pools in all directions, and sitting down 
beneath the shadow of the old square castle of the Sara- 
cens, the Kalat-el-Burak, which is within a stone's cast 
of the upper cistern. We then turned to the right, in- 
stead of going straight north, and took our way along 
the path which keeps beside the aqueduct. We ob- 
served the water at several apertures in the aqueduct 
or conduit, so that it is so far in working order. Most 
of these openings seemed made on purpose, and not 

* Felix Fabri, vol. ii. p. 185, Domenico Lajji, Viaggio, p, 399, where 
the measurements of the pools are given. Antonio del Castillo, el Devoto 
peregrino, p. 295, where the dimensions of the pools are also given. Maun- 
drel, (Bohn's Edition), p. 457. Hietling's Peregrinus per terram sanctam, 
p. 263, (AJD. 1712). Perry's View of the Levant, Syria, &c. (a.d. 1743), 
p. 129. The fullest description is by Mr Nicolayson in the Jewish Intelli- 
gence for 1855, p. 290. The Scotch Deputation also measured them. 

G 



98 



solomon's pools. 



merely breaches through disrepair. This disproves the 
assertion of some that it was meant to be quite water- 
tight, in order that the water might ascend the hills 
which lay on its way to Jerusalem. It seemed to us 
to preserve the line of level with remarkable care, though 
in order to do this it was forced to make innumerable 
bends and detours.* This aqueduct is one of the oldest 
in the world, and indicates the possession of a greater 
amount of science both among Jews and Phoenicians 
than we have usually given them credit for. There 
must have been some accurate process by which the 
levels were taken, though of the instruments employed 
we know nothing. The length of this aqueduct is very 
considerable. The direct distance between the pools 
and the temple will be about eight miles, but the number 
of windings, and the wide sweep of many of the curves, 
have lengthened out the conduit to twelve, or as some 
reckon, fourteen miles.-f- It is a wonderful specimen of 
ancient enterprise as well as art. What king of that 
age thought of bringing water into his capital over hills 
and ravines, from a distance of eight miles ? 

Riding along the slopes of the hills we soon came 

* " A field officer of artillery," who published a " Diary" of his tour in 
1821 and 1822, affirms that this aqueduct " in several parts of its course, 
decidedly ascends the hills and in a foot-note reasserts this from close 
and repeated observation." — Diary, p. 313. See also Spencer Hardy's 
" Notices of the Holy Land" in 1832, p. 214. 

f Ilietling says, " fons signatus, influendo Jerusalem per montes et 
valles gyrat, et facit plus quam 30 mill. Ital." (p. 268). Even reckoning 
his Italian miles in the proportion of three to two of ours, the above state- 
ment is extravagant. 



TIIE GARDEN } OF SOLOMON. 



99 



to the wady and village of Urtas, below us on our 
right. The village is poor enough, but the valley is beau- 
tiful, and in the full glow of summer verdure must be 
much more so. Its cultivation is greatly on the in- 
crease. It was of this that Solomon wrote, in that 
most " experimental" of all discourses ever preached 
or written, " I made me gardens and orchards/' or more 
literally, " paradises and " I planted trees on them 
of all kinds of fruits/' (Eccl. ii. 5). For these are un- 
doubtedly the gardens of Solomon. Urtass is the name 
by which the place is now known ; though some travel- 
lers speak of Wady Etdn as still known by the natives, 
preserving the ancient Etam of Rehoboam (2 Chron. 
xi. 6), and Josephus (Ant. viii. 7, 3). If Urtass be the 
proper name, it would seem as if the natives had got it 
from a corruption of the Latin hortus. But others say 
that El-Tas or El-Tos is the real name, (that is, " the 
cup"), and that the monks perverted this into hortus, 
and that, lastly, the natives perverted this into Urtass. 
It is indeed both a garden and a cup. It is one of the 
sweetest valleys into which the eye can look down ; a 
well-watered orchard covered with every goodly fruit- 
tree that Syria nourishes. 

It was to these pools and gardens, which Josephus 
calls Etham, that Solomon used to ride, in a morn- 
ing. He had made highways of " black stone," in 
different directions, from Jerusalem, so that he might 
drive along in his chariot to the different places around ; 
and very splendid is the picture which the Jewish 



100 



Solomon's glory. 



historian draws of " Solomon in his glory " on such oc- 
casions. His retinue was a company of 2000 horsemen, 
all of them in the flush of youth, tall and powerful, 
' 'goodly to see to," mounted on coursers whose swift- 
ness was as notable as was their obedience to the rein. 
Clothed in Tyrian purple, with long hair clustering 
round their stately necks, and powdered with gold which 
sparkled in the sunlight, they swept round the mighty 
monarch, forming a cavalcade which later " fields of 
gold/' cannot pretend, either in brilliance or numbers, 
to equal, far less to overpass. For being clad in armour, 
and armed with the Eastern bow, they added to the fair 
adornings of peace, the dazzling magnificence of war. — 
£ terrible as an army with banners." He himself, the 
wondrous king, seated in his chariot and clothed in 
white, rode on in the midst, his queen by his side, her 
" raiment of needlework/' her "clothing of wrought 
gold."* He leaves Jerusalem at dawn. The sun has 
just risen over the Mount of Olives, and is shining down 
upon the temple and the palace, when he issues forth 
from the city. The crow T d gathered round the Zion-gate 
shout forth their admiration, and cry, " in thy majesty 
ride prosperously " (Psa. xlv. 4) ; while " all his gar- 
ments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the 
ivory palaces " (Psa, xlv. 8) ; and the garments ol his 

* " King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon ; he 
made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering 
of it of purple ; the midst thereof being paved with love for [or by] the 
daughters of Jerusalem," (Song iii. 9. 10). 



Solomon's glory. 



101 



spouse are " like the smell of Lebanon/' (Song iv. 11). 
Crossing the hollow of what is called Gihon, they soon 
reach the wide fields beyond. Spreading itself out over 
the broad plain of Rephaim, yet marked with the monu- 
ments of his father's victory over the Philistines, the 
monarch's train sweeps onwards, a glittering mass of gold 
and purple and burnished steel ! Onwards still they 
move over the rugged heights and hollows that lie be- 
yond that plain. Passing Er-Ram on the left and 
Rachel's tomb on the right, they reach Bethlehem ; and 
the king for the thousandth time gazes on the slopes 
where his father fed his flock. The whole city comes 
out to see the matchless splendour and gaze on the gor- 
geous array, as the troop pours itself along. Onwards 
and downwards they move to the deep valley, whose 
centre and sides present one mass of flower and foliage, 
the small brook finding its bright course between. To 
the south the train disperses itself to refresh man and 
beast at the welcome pools, while Solomon goes " into 
his garden to eat his pleasant fruits" (Song iv. 16), to 
mark "the fig-tree putting forth its green figs," to ad- 
mire the " flowers appearing on the earth," and to listen 
to "the voice of the turtle," (Song ii. 12, 13). Yes, he 
is "gone down into his garden to the beds of spices, to 
feed in his garden, and to gather lilies ;" he is " gone 
down into the garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the 
valley, to see whether the vines flourish and the pome- 
granates are budding," (Song vi. 2, 11). To his queen 
at his side he says, " I am come into my garden, my 



102 



A GARDEN ENCLOSED. 



sister, my spouse : I have gathered my myrrh with my 
spice ; I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey ; I 
have drunk my wine with my milk 33 (Song v. 1).* 

What a scene must this have been ! Nor was it rare, 
or confined to certain festal times. It was a common 
occurrence. These " fifty furlongs " were the king's 
usual morning ride. The plains and the hills between 
Jerusalem and Etham are silent now, but how often 
have they echoed to the tread and the shouts of Israel's 
multitudes, and shone, in the day-spring, beneath the 
glitter of the most brilliant equipage this world ever 
saw. No expression could better describe the spot than 
that used by Solomon, " a garden inclosed/' (Song iv. 
12). It is " shut in " on every side, and lies there like 
a fragment of Paradise left behind to shew what this 
world was once, and what it shall be in " the times of 
the restitution of all things/' when " the wilderness shall 
become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted 
for a forest/' A little way up the valley is a spring 
which gushes out of the side of the rock and waters the 
gardens. Here, when visiting the place subsequently, 
we saw about a score of Arab women and children, some 
drawing water, some washing clothes in the clear water 
as it spread itself out, on leaving its source, over a pretty 
large inclosure of stone, before making its way by the 
small canals into the gardens. This is just as likely to 

* It is the greater than Solomon, no doubt, who speaks these words ; 
but the figures are all taken from the literal Solomon, and a reference to 
his history brings them out in their full power and beauty. 



A SABBATH IN BETHLEHEM. 



be te the spring shut, the fountain sealed/' as the vaulted 
chamber above the pools, already mentioned. But it 
matters not. The passage is illustrated by either. Tra- 
dition says that Solomon shut up the springs belonging 
to his garden, and sealed them with his own signet, that 
he might keep them fresh and unsoiled. So that we 
have in this scene the illustration of the whole verse, 
first, the " garden enclosed/' secondly, the " spring shut 
up/' and thirdly, the " fountain sealed." The next two 
verses look backward and describe the garden as an 
orchard (or Paradise) of pomegranates, with pleasant 
fruits, camphire with spikenard ; spikenard and saffron, 
calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, 
myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices/' Then the 
watering of this Paradise is described. " A fountain," 
nay, " a well of living waters," — nay, cooler and more 
perennial than all, " streams from Lebanon." 

Here, on the following Sabbath, I preached. Cer- 
tainly the congregation was not a large one, but still 
it was interesting in spite of its smallness. It consisted 
of the owner or tenant of these gardens, his wife and 
family, with Mr Graham of Jerusalem, whose wont 
it is to come here once a fortnight to hold worship 
with this little flock, who would otherwise be shut out 
from ordinances. The owner's name is Meshullam, — 
a converted Jew, who, with his family, has been settled 
here for some time. It was most pleasant and interest- 
ing to speak of the name and glory of the true Solomon 



104 



FRUITFULNESS OF THE SOIL. 



in a place like this ! It was just a scene in the midst 
of which one could read and understand the " Song of 
songs." Trees, fruits, and flowers were all around ; and 
though much here had changed since Solomon used to 
visit the spot, yet the great features of the place were 
all the same. Solomon had seen these rocks, he had 
walked in this valley, he had drank of this spring. 

The soil is very fruitful, both as regards fruit-trees 
and vegetables, shewing here as elsewhere how easy it 
would be to bring back the land to its former richness. 
Meshullam is very successful in his operations, and finds 
a good market for his produce in J erusalem, in spite of 
the curses of some fanatical Rabbis, who forbade their 
brethren to buy from him. He is planting olives, figs, 
and vines. And this serves a double purpose. It not 
merely enriches him with the fruit, but it makes the 
land inalienably his. For it is a law of the kingdom, 
that whoever plants a tree becomes permanent possessor 
of all the ground which is covered at noon by the sha- 
dow of that tree when grown to the full. We saw the 
almond-tree in blossom, and some others, such as the 
apricot, beginning to bud. The hill sides were sprinkled 
with wild flowers very plentifully. Here was the small 
yellow- white star of Bethlehem, clinging to every cre- 
vice. Here was the cyclamen with its streaked leaf of 
dark-green, and its exquisitely formed flower, half pink, 
half white ; — its huge bulb hidden among the stones, 
through which its stalk shot up. There was the ane- 
mone, with its crimson flowers and fringe-like leaf rising 



GARDENS OF SOLOMON. 



105 



wherever there was the smallest patch of soil into which 
to strike its roots. Besides these, there were flowers of 
every colour and name shewing themselves on all sides, 
— small in size but beautiful in form and hue, — some 
drinking in the sunshine, others enjoying the shade. 
Truly " Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these." 

It was thus that Solomon, as the Prince of peace, 
beat his father's swords into ploughshares, and his 
spears into pruning-hooks, foretelling the day of earth's 
final peace, after long years of war and blood, — the day 
when " the Lord shall comfort Zion. when he will com- 
fort all her waste places, when he will make her wilder- 
ness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the 
Lord/' (Is. li. 3). And what a change it will be to 
Palestine when " the desolate land shall be tilled," when 
the land that was desolate shall become like the garden 
of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities 
shall be fenced and inhabited/' (Ezek. xxxvi. 34, 35) ! 
Then shall they " plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of 
them, and drink the wine thereof; then shall they 
make gardens, and eat the fruit of them," (Am. ix. 14). 
And it is worth while to notice that, when God made 
Israel to be carried away captive to Babylon, he bade 
them, in token of their quiet sojourn there for seventy 
years, " plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them/' (Jer. 
xxix. 5). 

All the Pashas in the east have " gardens," whether 
in imitation of Solomon or not we do not say. Cer- 



106 



SMOOTHNESS OF THE ROCKS. 



tainly he is a great authority in these lands, even with 
Moslems, — his sayings and doings being handed down 
from father to son, and his name kept up as a common 
one among all classes, both poor and rich ; the Beda- 
ween of the desert and the Effendis of Syria. 

But we must pass the gardens of Solomon, and go 
forward. We soon leave the aqueduct, which like a ser- 
pent winds along, now disappearing and now reappear- 
ing ; and find ourselves ere long within sight of Bethle- 
hem. Moving onwards along the rugged road, sometimes 
through half-tilled fields and sometimes up a rough 
hillside, sometimes down into a deep vale, we at length 
ascend a steep, formed, not of rough stones and soil, but 
of sloping shelves of solid rock. It was somewhat 
alarming. No English horse, great or small, would 
have faced such a j)ath, especially as in many places it 
was worn into smoothness on which no foot could stand. 
Of such acclivities Solomon perhaps spoke when he 
said that; he knew not " the way of a serpent upon a 
rock/' (Prov. xxx. 19). The prophet Amos, too, perhaps 
knew these smooth steeps, as Tekoah, where he fed his 
flocks, was not far off, and it was a place like this that 
made him ask the question, " Shall horses run upon the 
rock ; will one plough there with oxen ?" (Amos vi. 12.) 
Our stout, sure-footed Syrian ponies did not hesitate. 
It seemed a matter of great indifference to them what 
sort of road it was, — level or steep, soft or hard, smooth 
cr rocky. They were at home on all of these. Not so 
we. Accordingly some of us dismounted, thinking our 



THE WELL OF DAVID. 



107 



own feet surer than theirs. As I had begun, even 
already, to have some confidence in our tough little 
steeds, I kept my saddle, and without a slip or stumble 
my pony carried me to the top of the whole series of 
sloping shelves. Just about the top, and almost imme- 
diately before entering the town, we came upon the well 
of David, and if the town then stood where it now does, 
the well would be just, as David describes it, " by the 
gate/' (2 Sam. xxiii. 15). The gate certainly is gone ; 
but the well is there. It is an arched enclosure of a 
considerable compass, and open at the sides. We heard, 
as we came near, the noise of many voices, with mirth 
between ; not the sound of quarrelling Arabs, which 
had become familiar to us, but something gentler, such 
as we heard at Hebron when first we entered. As we 
came up to the well we saw some twenty or thirty 
females, all busy, both with tougue and hands, at their 
work of washing and drawing water. Little children, 
girls, young women, aged mothers, were there, — though 
the larger number consisted of the girls of Bethlehem. 
They were dressed for work, not for a holiday ; but it 
was the oriental dress of many colours, and these co- 
lours brought out bright by the sun of a Syrian noon. 
The scene had a life, and a glow, and a beauty about it, 
which, even apart from its old histories, could not but 
fascinate a stranger's eye. We rode up to the joyous 
circle, and, though we could not converse with them, 
Ave could ask for water. One of them drew it for us in 
>a skin-pitcher, into which I dipped my gutta-percha 



108 



BETHLEHEM. 



cup, and quenched my thirst with the pleasant waters 
of David's well, not asking whether it was really his 
or not. 

In a few minutes we were in the midst of Bethlehem, 
looking down upon the opposite steep, and standing 
before the small low gate of the convent. Dismounting, 
and leaving our ponies in the keeping of some young 
Bethlemites, we bent our heads, or rather bodies, to the 
height of the door-way, and went in. We saw the 
" church of the nativity/' the " cave of the nativity," 
the " tomb of the innocents/' the marble slab, in front 
of which is the inlaid Latin inscription, hie de Virgine 
Maria Jesus Christies natus est, — "Here, of the Virgin 
Mary, Jesus Christ was born." All is darkness in these 
chapels or cells, save what the candle or the silver lamp 
gives forth of light. Such darkness may be needed for 
the sake of effect ; but what harmony is there between 
it and the scene of which these buildings speak ? Light, 
not darkness, ought to have been there ; and the sun- 
niest hill-top that ever welcomed an eastern dayspring 
would not have been too bright as the memorial-spot of 
such a birth.* And had self-righteous men, who " loved 
the darkness rather than the light/' been contented to 
leave the place alone in its bare beauty, all would have 
suited well, and that quiet hill on which Bethlehem sits 
so w r ell, instead of being overshadowed by a monstrous 
structure, half-church, half-fort, under which the sacred 
places lie buried in gloom, would have held up to view, 

* "Fulgent cunabuia Christi," is the old raying. 



man's artifices. 



109 



in glorious sunlight, the never-to-be-forgotten spot 
where, " through the tender mercy of our God, the day- 
spring from on high visited us, to give light to them 
that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death/' (Luke 
i. 78, 79). What have these chambers of gloom to do 
with the rising of that " light that was to lighten the 
Gentiles ?" (Luke ii. 32.) Darkness is for the hour of 
evil and the night of disaster. How suits it the morn- 
ing of the brightest day that has yet dawned upon the 
earth ? What fellowship have the shadows of the cloister 
or the cell with the birth of the Son of God? What 
likeness is there between the mysterious sadness which 
these religious artifices try to throw around us, and the 
glad tidings of God's free love, in which there is no 
darkness, no sadness at all ? These dim windows, these 
massive walls, these thick gratings, these cells and 
chapels, with all their lamps and tapers, pictures and 
statues, — what are they but man's weak endeavours to 
shut out God's free blessed light, in order to create a 
necessity for kindling one of his own, by the merchan- 
dise of which he may make his gain on earth, and per- 

* The place shewn as the stable is a cave, low and narrow. Jerome 
mentions it as " specus Salvatoris," the stable where, he says, the ox 
knew its owner, and the ass its master's crib. It is not certainly a likely 
place for a stable, especially in the palmy days of Palestine. Even now 
such a place would only be resorted to from necessity. Dr Robinson goes 
too far, perhaps, in affirming that such stables are not used in the east ; 
but others are farther wrong who speak of this as a usual eastern practice, 
and who, moreover, imply that such was the practice in the prosperous 
days of this land. 



110 



Jerome's cell. 



suade his victims that they, in the purchase of it, are 
buying heaven. 

" Lents, embers, vigils, groans, humi-cubations, 
Tears, pensiveness, disconsolate privacie, 
Severest arts of all mortifications, 
Are not conditions required by 
An earthlie suitor : and can heavenly He 
Imbitter thus his deare saints' suavitie ? " 

Joseph Beaumont. 

Jerome's cell did interest us, even with all the folly 
that was painted on it. It is likely to be the real spot 
where that old father spent his days in learned labour, 
and where he died at the age of ninety. His letters, 
his treatises, and his commentaries, are not without 
their value. But no one from them could learn what 
God's free love is, or what is God's testimony to the 
work of his Son upon the cross, in the simple belief of 
which we are at once forgiven, His learning had not 
taught him these things. Self-righteous darkness over- 
shadows his pages ; and his expositions only shew us 
how sadly he had followed Origen's example, and turned 
aside from the accurate sense of Scripture into the vague- 
ness of allegory and mystery. 

We did not stay long amid the follies and mockeries 
of the convent.* Glad to be done with them, we were 
hastening out, when we were met in the outer court, 

* The author of the old Arabic history of the Temple of Jerusalem, says 
of Bethlehem— " We may not enter the church at Bethlehem, because 
there is imagery therein" (p. 144). 



FRIENDS FEOM JERUSALEM. 



Ill 



hard by the chapel door, by the " buyers and sellers " of 
Bethlehem, who carry on a trade here in olive beads, 
mother-of-pearl crosses, Hebron glass-rings, boxes made 
of Dead Sea asphalt, and such like articles, — making 
the church, if not a den of thieves, at least a house of 
merchandise. Their traffic is not a dull one at any 
time, but is especially brisk at those seasons when the 
pilgrims flock in thousands to the shrine. 

We left the town, not without many a look behind, 
for it remains long in view, and like all Eastern vil- 
lages looks best from a distance.* After we had 
ridden above a mile, we descried three riders approach- 
ing us, evidently not natives, but English. One of 
them was my friend Mr Graham, who had for the last 
two years been sojourning in Jerusalem. We had not 
seen a fellow-countryman for six weeks, so we were glad 
to receive and return a Scottish welcome on the heights 
of Bethlehem. 

" Have you seen the Shepherd's Plain," was one of 
our friend's first questions. 

" No, we have not," was our answer. 

" Then turn back and I will be your guide to it." 

We turned accordingly and rode towards the town. 

* I remembered the words of Jerome, read long ago, in one of his letters 
from Bethlehem ; " In thi3 village of Christ all is rural simplicity. Savo 
the sound of psalms all is silence. The ploughman holding the plough- 
share sings Alleluia. The sweating reaper employs himself with psalms. 
The vinedresser pruning his vines with curving hook, sings some song of 
David. These are our songs in this region ; these are our love-chants." — 
Ejx'st. ad Marcellam. See also his Epitaph of Paula. 



112 



THE PLAIN OF THE SHEPHERDS. 



About half-a-mile from it, and at the top of the oppo- 
site slope, a road leads to the left. Into this we first 
turned aside. At the corner where the roads meet, 
there is a garden or orchard, chiefly planted with fig- 
trees. This, tradition says, was the farm of Jesse, the 
father of David. Close by this there is a field where 
there is a very old well, and where the ruins of some 
old town are observable under the surface. This may 
have been the original city of Bethlehem.* We then 
rode through the town once more, in order to reach the 
Plain of the Shepherds. On our way a Bethlehemite met 
us, offering for sale the head and antlers of a large stag. 

" How much/' said one of the party. 

" Thirty piastres/' replied the man of Bethlehem. 

" Fifteen/' was the offer on our side ; but the man 
shook his head, and we passed on. Down the steep 
slope we went, on through a ploughed field to the Shep- 
herd's Plain. In the middle of it are the ruins of a 
convent or church, surrounded by trees, chiefly olives. 
As this is the only plain in the neighbourhood, the dis- 
trict being very hilly, there is little doubt that this is 
the real plain where the shepherds fed their flocks when 
the angel appeared. They were " abiding in the field, 
keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke ii. 8), 

* Perhaps it was here that the tomb of Jesse and David was shewn in 
the time of Eusebius and Jerome. Onomast. Bethlehem. There is also an 
old well here which may be the true " well of Bethlehem." It is not at all 
unlikely that Bethlehem may have migrated a little from its original site 
as Hebron has done. 



THE PLAIN OF BETHLEHEM. 



113 



most likely in spring or summer, not in winter. To 
these believing men, lying on this green plain, the 
message came, concerning the wondrous birth. " While 
feeding their sheep, they found the Lamb of God/' as 
Jerome remarks.* Over all these hills which rise on 
every side the glory shone, — that same glory which 
Moses saw in the bush, and which afterwards took up its 
dwelling in the tabernacle and temple. Round these 
grey rocks echoed the praises of the heavenly host, 
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and 
good will toward men/' Up that very steep which we 
had just descended, these good men proceeded with all 
haste to see the holy child. On yon height stood the 
stable into which they entered and found the babe with 
Mary and J oseph. They told their tale, not only to the 
parents, but to the wondering people (Luke ii. 17, 18) ; 
and then quietly retraced their steps down the same 
road and resumed their w T atch. The scene, the voice, 
the music, the glory, the shepherds' eager steps, — all 
came up before us. How true everything appeared ! 

On this plain too David had fed his flocks ; and per- 
haps it was here that the 23d Psalm was given to him 
by the Spirit of God. How pleasantly did it sound here, 
— " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." 
Here too Ruth had gleaned, when living with Naomi in 
the city. After lingering a short time on the spot, and 
gazing on all the heights, we moved upwards to the vil- 
lage. As we passed through it, the same large antlers 

* " Bum servant oves, invencrunt ngimm Dei." — JEpilaphum Paula e. 

H 



114 



THE BIRTHPLACE OF SAMUEL. 



were flourished again before us, and the same price 
asked. After following ns for some time, and seeing 
that it was vain to attempt to get us up to his price, 
the Bethlehemite came down to ours, and gave the horns 
for the fifteen piastres. This was a good specimen of 
an Eastern bargain ; charge double of what you expect 
to get ; get the whole if you can, if not take the half, or 
perhaps the tenth ! 

We now moved forward to Jerusalem. Behind us 
was Bethlehem ; beneath us to the right the shepherds' 
plain, and above it the village Pastore, in which the 
shepherds are said to have dwelt. We soon came to 
an immense mound of ruins on the right, called (we 
were told) by the Arabs Er-Ram* That a town of some 
size stood here once is plain, and there are some things 
in Scripture which lead us to fix on this as Ramah or 
Ramathaim-Zophim, the birth-place and home of 
Samuel. The region round about was called the land 
of Zuph (1 Sam. ix. 5), from Zuph, one of Elkanah's 
ancestors (1 Sam. i. 1), and from this the town seems to 
have taken its name of Zophim. It is on a height 
which gives a wide view on all sides, and hence we read 
of Saul and his servant, that "they went up the hill to 
the city/' (1 Sam. ix. 11). Here Hannah dwelt, and 

* The old travellers frequently mention a Ramah near Rachel's tomb. 
Lam, Viaggio, p. 337. But they meant Beit-jalah, as the following pas- 
sage of a long resident Spaniard shews : " enfrente deste sepulcro como 
dos millas apartada, esta la cuidad de Rama, oy se llama Voticheld" 
(Beit-jalah) Antonio del Castillo, p. 265. 



HANNAH'S GIFT. 



115 



mourned and prayed, till the Lord gave her the son she 
longed for. From this she set out to Shiloh, bearing 
her precious gift, the child of grief and faith, to present 
him to the Lord. Here she made him the " little coat, 
and took it to him from year to year when she came up 
with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice " (1 Sam. 
ii. 19) \ and how many happy journeys northwards to 
Shiloh must that glad mother have had, to visit her de- 
dicated son ! And that God, to whom she so freely 
gave him, returned the gift in after days ; for when he 
grew up, and probably after the ark had been taken 
from Shiloh, Samuel came back to Ramah to make glad 
a father's and a mother's heart. It was Israel's sin 
that had thus driven him home ; but still there would 
be joy in Ramah and in Eikanah's house when such a 
son returned to such a mother ! Thus faith gets the 
blessing at last, and the very joy that it parted with for 
God is sent back in richer fulness into the bosom of the 
self-denying one. She had given him up a feeble child, 
she gets him home a priest of God's tabernacle, nay a 
prophet and a judge in Israel, owned both of God and 
man, one of the fairest examples of consistent faith and 
holiness that Israel ever saw. From childhood he knew 
the Lord God of his fathers, and to his old age " he 
walked with him in peace and equity, and did turn 
away many from iniquity/' 

Since we left Beersheba we had passed many a ruin. 
Simeon and Judah have forsaken their dwellings, — 
" scattered, as the stubble passeth away, by the wind of 



116 



RACHEL'S TOMB. 



the wilderness " (Jer. xiii. 24) ; — cities and villages are 
heaps of rubbish, for 

" The cities of the south shall be shut up, 
And none shall open them." (Jer. xiii. 19.) 

Leaving Er-Ram we came to Eachel's tomb, which 
is close at hand, to the left of the road. The present 
building is merely a Mahommedan Wely, not perhaps 
very old ; but there is little doubt that it was here, on 
her way to Ephratah that Rachel died in giving birth 
to him whom she in her anguish called Benoni, but 
whom his father, looking into ages to come, called Ben- 
jamin, — a name prophetic of the warrior tribe, which 
gave birth to such men as Kish and Saul. On this 
spot Jacob's tents were pitched, as he and his band 
halted because of Rachel's sorrow. Here he watched 
and wept, and here he laid her down to rest till the 
great day of rising, when the " dwellers in the dust shall 
awake and sing/' Here many a Jew buries his dead ; 
and hither do they oft resort to pray ; as if the cry of the 
soul could get better up to heaven from this old tomb 
than from the closet where faith makes its directest 
appeal to Him " who seeth in secret." Inside are He- 
brew names carved upon the walls. Outside is a large 
hole or pit, built round and arched, where skulls and 
bones without number were lying in a mass. It was 
a dull afternoon when we saw it, for clouds had covered 
a sky which a few hours before was bright and clear, 
and the scene looked bleak. The ground was stony, 
and the slopes around were grey and bare, relieved only 
by the olives which were sprinkled over their face. 



BEIT-JALAII. 



117 



On the height to the west stands the village of Beit- 
Jalah, dwelt in chiefly by members of the Greek Church. 
A splendid palace for the patriarch is now erecting, 
and is the most striking object in the view. The forest 
of olives which covers the hill and almost surrounds the 
houses, sets off the village to great advantage ; while the 
white walls of the village finely bring out the green of the 
olives. In days of greater fruitfulness, the scene must 
have been one of no common beauty. Even now, these 
wooded heights seemed almost to redeem the bleakness 
of the rocky ground below, around the tomb of Rachel. 
It is thought that this town of Beit- Jalah is the Zelah or 
Zelzah of Scripture (Josh, xviii. 28, 1 Sam. x. 2, 2 Sam. 
xxi. 14). This is doubtful, though not impossible.* 

We reached Mar Elyas about five o'clock. It is a 
structure of Greek superstition, many a century old 
and often noticed by travellers, who sometimes speak 
of it as the birthplace of the prophet, but more gene- 
rally as his resting-place on his way to Beersheba.-f* It 

* One traveller calls this place Votichela (see p. 114), another calls it 
Boetese Clacli or Boticella (Van Egmond, vol. i. p. 363), another calls it 
Bootishella (Thomson, vol. iii. p. 163). Tradition has fixed the field and 
tomb of the prophet Habakkuk not far from this, where certain small 
round stones are said to be found (Felix Fabri, vol. i. p. 431), and as 
Jerome has connected this tomb with Echela " {Hachilah, 1 Sam. xxiii. 
19, xxvi. 1), where David hid himself, it would seem as if Boticella were 
regarded as the modern representative of Hachilah. While some seem 
to have reckoned this Ramah, others point out the Frank mountain as 
Ramah (Felix Fabri. vol. ii. p. 335). 

■f "Alytell farther we came to an olde churche where the propheto 
Elyas was borne," (Pilgrimage of Sir R. Guylforde, (a.d. 1506) p. 35.) 



118 



FIRST VIEW OF JERUSALEM. 



is on the ridge which slopes northward to Jerusalem 
and southward to Bethlehem. Greek tradition points 
out the dint in a flat stone by the wayside, made by 
his body as he slept. This is one of the many miracu- 
lous indentations with which the superstition both of 
the east and west has covered the rocks. Feet, hands, 
fingers, toes, body, have all left their prints on the yield- 
ing stone ; and those skilful ecclesiastical geologists, the 
monks, have read them off to a nicety, giving us not 
only genus and species, as our common geologists do 
with antediluvian or pre-adamite footprints, but name, 
surname, and date. 

I looked at the fabulous bed, without dismounting or 
even stopping ; and on turning round again I descried 
something of what seemed an angle of a large village, 
perhaps three miles in front, A piece of battlemented 
wall, and one or two minarets, appeared in view. They 
seemed on a lower platform than that by which we were 
descending, and were at the same time thrown in relief 
against some bare, grey, and rather shabby-looking hills 
that came up behind them. What place is that, I 
asked? That place? It is Jerusalem! — Jerusalem! 
What a thrill went through the heart-. Jerusalem ! Is 
it so ? And have we seen. Jerusalem at last ! 

We ceased to speak ; smitten dumb by a feeling, of 
which I had never known the like, nor ever expect to 
know again. 

Wonder, solemnity, joy, sadness, were all mingled 
together. Yet above these, or at least with these, there 



THE INTEREST OF JERUSALEM. 



119 



rose up affection ; affection as tender and profound as 
that with which one regards the city of their birth, 
their father's resting-place, and their children's home. 
British nationality seemed for a moment lost in some- 
thing greater than itself. 

A man's first look at Jerusalem is not a thing which 
calls up exclamations, or which gets vent in words ; and 
so we mused in silence, not asking any questions nor 
turning round to adjoining objects, nor doing anything 
that would break the new spell that had in a moment 
bound us, or interfere with the one thought that filled 
us, — " this is J erusalem." 

Other places have their objects of interest ; Sinai 
spoke to us of Moses, Hebron of Abraham, Bethlehem of 
the new r -born Christ. But Jerusalem has a thousand such 
objects ; and it was the sudden uprising of these in one 
glorious cloud that so fixed the eye and absorbed the 
mind. Memories without number seemed to float over 
that mountain-circle which embraces and embosoms the 
wondrous city. Melchizedec, David, Solomon, Heze- 
kiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, — the Son of God himself ; — but 
no ; — it is vain to name the names or number the events 
linked with this old spot. They make up one mighty 
sum, and we dwell upon this great whole. We give 
ourselves up to the influence of this great mass of holy 
histories, without any attempt for the present to ana- 
lyse or distinguish. That will come afterwards. Mean- 
while we surrender ourselves to the undefined feeling 



120 



ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 



that springs from the simple knowledge that this is 
Jerusalem. 

The view we get from this spot is far from being a 

good one. We might be inclined to call it poor. But 

it was reality ; and how vivid as well as how T refreshing 

did that reality appear to us who had just the moment 

before been gazing on traditional lies and monkish 
© © 

mockeries ! The stone of Mar-Elias and the Mount of 
Olives, — what a difference between the clumsy fable and 
the majestic truth ! 

The city seemed to possess magnetic power. We felt 
drawn towards it, — eager to stand within its gates. 
Not so had it been with Sinai. The stern memories of 
the past, and the inhospitable wildness of the present, 
repelled us. There was nothing attractive in its fiery 
peaks, associated as they were with death, and wrath, 
and the inexorable law. But Jerusalem w^ins the heart, 
and draws the steps towards itself, by a mighty and 
mysterious magnetism. You feel as if approaching 
home, and as if every object and scene were bidding you 
welcome. 

We passed rapidly on, having the plain of Rephaim 
on our left. This plain, or " valley/' is noted in the 
history of David's wars with the Philistines. It was 
here that " the host of the Philistines" encamped when 
Bethlehem was garrisoned by them, and David was in 
the cave of Adullam (2 Sam. xxiii. 14). It was here 
that they " came and spread themselves out/' when 
they heard that David was anointed king over all Is- 



ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM. 



121 



rael, (2 Sam. v. 1 7 ; 1 Chron. xiv. 8, 9). Somewhere in 
this neighbourhood must have been BaalPerazim, 
where David smote them, and where he burned with 
fire "their gods/' which in their flight they had left 
behind them. It was to this same valley that they 
came up again, and " spread themselves abroad/' And 
somewhere here must have been the " mulberry- trees" 
(perhaps the valley of Baca, Psalm lxxxiv. 6) where 
David was commanded to attack them, and where he 
smote them " from Gibeon even to Gazer" (1 Chron. xiv. 
15, 16), or, as it is in the corresponding place in Samuel, 
" from Geba until thou come to Gazer" (2 Sam. v. 25), 
shewing that Gibeon and Geba are the same. Baal- 
Perazim means place of breaches, because, said David, 
" the Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before 
me as the breach of waters," (2 Sam. v. 20). Afterwards 
the name Perazim seems to have been given to some 
hill hard by ; for we read in Isaiah of Mount Perazim 
(Isa. xxviii. 21). In this chapter there are several 
abrupt announcements of blessing and deliverance, in- 
terrupting the dark flow of judgment upon judgment ; 
and this is one of them. It is God's intimation of His 
purpose yet to sweep away Israel's enemies in the lat- 
ter day as in former ages ; u for (or yet, surely) the 
Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim ; he shall be 
wroth as in the valley of Gibeon." Rephaim was one 
of the landmarks on the boundary-line between the 
tribe of Judah and Benjamin. " The border went up 
by the valley of the son of Hinnom, unto the south side 



122 



APPROACH JERUSALEM. 



of the Jebusite, the same is Jerusalem ; and the border 
went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before 
the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of 
the valley of the giants (Rephaim) northward," (J osh. 
xv. 8). It was a place for crops, as is plain from the 
prophet's allusion, when he compares Israel, in their 
scattering, to the few ears of corn left for the gleaners : 
— " it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley 
of Rephaim/' (Isa. xvii. 5). 

As we came nearer the city we descended considerably 
into the hollow, where lies what the natives call Birket- 
es-Sultan, or King s Pool, and which some suppose to 
be the lower pool of Gihon. Here Solomon's aqueduct 
passes over to Mount Zion, and thence to Mount Moriah. 
Just before this, on the left, was a large space enclosed 
with new white walls, where a building was beginning 
to be erected for the benefit of the J ews, by Sir Moses 
Montefiore. We saw camels bringing the stones, and the 
workman hewing them with their large hammers ; for 
neither in Egypt nor in Palestine did we see the chisel 
employed for hewing or smoothing the stones. It is 
only the sound of " axes and hammers," that is heard 
in these lands. On a large stone at one of the angles 
of the outer walls, looking towards the road, we read, 
in very large Hebrew characters, M. M., being, as we 
interpreted, the initials of the benevolent founder, who 
gives liberally of his money (as few European Jews 
do) for the temporal benefit of his nation. 

The sun had set, and the evening was closing up, so 



ENTER JERUSALEM. 



128 



we hastened forward. We were on the point of being 
too late for admittance ; for the signal-man or watch- 
man, or whatever his name of office may be, had 
come out, and standing on a small hillock, from which 
he could be well heard on all sides, was shouting 
vigorously, " Yellah, yell ah/' — Come on, come on ; 
the same shout that cheered us up the pyramids, and 
so often greeted us in the desert from the lips of 
sheikh or dragoman. It had more in it of the chiding 
than of the welcome ; but we, along with some loiterers 
outside, obeyed the summons, and, mounting the steep, 
were soon within the gates of J erusalem. 

We entered by the south-western or Jaffa gate, the 
chief place of exit and of entrance.* Immediately on 
entering, the castle or tower of David is seen on the right 
hand, a massive oblong structure, which had been partly 
visible from the outside. The street into which we passed 
was wide and open ; but only half paved, and encroached 
upon, just behind the gate, by a large pool of rain-water. 
A few minutes, however, brought us to the gate of our 
hotel, and another minute seated us in the comfortable 
parlour of Mr Simeon Rosenthal, where dinner was 
awaiting us. Like most such rooms in Jerusalem, it is 
arched ; stone being much cheaper than wood. Inside 

* Two English pilgrims that visited the city in 1611, speak thus of this 
gate : — "The west gate of the city is called Joppa gate, or castle gate, 
and is a very strong gate of iron, with thirteen pieces of brasse ordinance 
planted on the wall about the gate ;" (p. 97.) These writers add: — " There 
is not one fair street in allJerusalem, as it now is." Matters are not much 
improved since then. 



124 



DESERT WANDERINGS OYER. 



this gives rather an elegant appearance to the chamber, 
and the dome on the roof takes away from the mono- 
tonous flatness which the square houses of the east often 
exhibit. This excellent hotel is on Mount Zion, very near 
the English church. Our windows looked down upon 
the large square pool, called Hezekiah's ; beyond which 
there shot up the patched and clumsy dome of the 
church of the Holy Sepulchre ; while beyond that, in 
the distance, there rose the flat ridge of Scopus. Often, 
as I looked down upon that old church, so far within 
the city, now in the day of its contraction, I have won- 
dered how any one could expect us to believe that once, 
in the day of the city's far-spread fulness, it could have 
stood without its walls. 

Our desert-wanderings were now fairly over, and we 
had the prospect of a three weeks' sojourn here. Our 
feet now stood within Jerusalem, and our head was to 
rest, not beneath the canvas of a tent, but under the 
roof of a dwelling, a dwelling in that city and on that 
mount which from childhood we had longed to see. 

The day was rapidly falling, and the sky, which in 
its early part had been sunny, had passed into dul- 
ness. The evening was bleak and chill ; and there was 
a quiet cloudiness over the city, which seemed to suit 
both our mood and the scene. 



CHAPTER VI. 



jerusalem — service in the mission church — walk along the walis 
— st Stephen's gate — gethsemane — road to bethany — tombs — 

large stones in the city wall moonlight —morning walk 

mount of olives — mount zion place of wailing remains of 

arch — aceldama. 

Jerusalem, Wednesday, Feb. 20. 1856. — We went at 
ten to service in the mission church, a handsome build- 
ing on Mount Zion, in digging for the foundation of 
which some years ago, no less than forty feet of rubbish 
had to be penetrated. So completely is modern J eru- 
salem built upon the ruins of the old city. Surely 
" they have laid Jerusalem on heaps," (Psa. lxxix. 1 ; 
Jer. ix. 11 ; Micah iii. 12). It has been "turned up- 
side down/' (2 Kings xxi. 13). 

Mr Crawford preached with much life and truth on 
Luke xv. 18, " I will arise and go to my father/' We 
were not sorry to begin our sojourn in Jerusalem with 
worship on Mount Zion ; and it was pleasant to be 
greeted with such words, — words from the lips of Him 
who here died and rose again. 

Between one and two we set out for a walk along the 
city walls, on the inside of which, about five feet from 



126 



WALLS OF JERUSALEM. 



the top, there runs a ledge some two or three feet broad, 
as in other fortified towns. This ledge was our road. 
These walls only date three centuries back. The ancient 
walls against which Sennacherib " shook his hand/' 
when encamping at Nob (Isa, x. 32), which Nebuchad- 
nezzar overthrew, against which the thrones of " the 
kingdoms of the north" were set (Jer. i. 15), which 
Titus scaled, all these are gone ; the work of David, 
and Nehemiah, and Agrippa, is now rubbish. Jerusa- 
lem has shrivelled up into the third part of her former 
size ; tower and wall, gate and bar, have fallen. Most 
literally has that come to pass which is written, "go 
ye up upon her walls and destroy ; but make not a full 
end ; take away her battlements, for they are not the 
Lord's," (Jer. v. 10). 

We ascended the walls at the Jaffa gate, not far from 
which tradition points out the gardens of Bathsheba, 
and the house of Uriah the Hittite. From this we 
made a circuit round the west and north and east, till 
stopped by the mosque of Omar. Inside we saw the 
whole mass of houses, with their square structure and 
flat roof, with small central elevation like a dome, occa- 
sioned by the arch within. But in none of these is there 
any relic of the real Jerusalem. It was not the ancient 
city that lay under our eye. That has passed away. 
Ploughed and re-ploughed by Roman, Persian, Saracen, 
and Crusader, nothing of old Jerusalem remains, but 
the dust. It is on the grave of the ancient citv that 
the modern city stands. In this sense "Jerusalem is 



1 HODDEN DOWN OF THE GENTILES. 



127 



trodden down of the Gentiles ;" for but a small part of 
it belongs to the Jews. Their "quarter" on Mount 
Zion is almost imperceptible. Above this mass of 
houses we see towering the mosque, the minaret, the 
church, the dome, forming the great features of the 
city, and telling us again that " Jerusalem is trodden 
down of the Gentiles," for all these, — Mahommedan, 
Protestant, Greek, Latin, Armenian, — are Gentile. 
Israel's synagogues are obscure and invisible, the lowest 
part of some of these poor houses that lie hard by. 
" Their teachers are removed into a corner," and they 
eat " the bread of adversity and the water of affliction," 
(Isa. xxx. 20). Waving in the noon-breeze there are 
the flags of many nations, the British, the Prussian, the 
French, the Austrian, the Turkish, all of them Gentile ! 
No Jewish flag floats over any house or tower of Jeru- 
salem. The lion of Judah and the wolf of Benjamin 
have no banner in a city which was once wholly their 
own. " Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles " 
her " gates lament and mourn, and she being desolate 
sits on the ground," (Isa. iii. 26). The voice of the 
Moslem, from a dozen of minarets, rings shrilly over the 
city, five times a day, " Allah is great, Allah is the 
greatest ; come to prayer, come to prayer ; prayer is 
better than work ; come to prayer ;" but no voice of 
Jewish song comes up, no silver trumpet tells the 
new moon or the solemn feast. This is the long day 
of Jerusalem's " heaviness and sorrow," (Isa. xxix. 2), 
when that is come to pass which is written, "thou 



128 



PLACES OF INTEREST. 



shalt be brought down and shalt speak out of the 
gr&hnd, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, 
and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar 
spirit out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper 
(peep or chirp) out of the dust/' (Isa. xxix. 4). Look at 
the city under any aspect, its houses, its walls, its rub- 
bish, its dust, and see how truly God has brought to 
pass his word, "I will stretch over Jerusalem the line 
of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab ; 
and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wip- 
ing it and turning it upside down/' (2 Kings xxi. 13). 

If, as we move along the walls, we look outside the 
city, we see many a spot of interest. There to the west 
is what is called the " Upper Pool " of Gihon, and close 
at hand a Turkish burying-ground ; for the foot of the 
Gentile is there. To the north, Scopus where the 
" armies of the alien " encamped. On the east, the 
Mount of Olives, with a Moslem village on the top, and 
beside it the church of the Ascension ; still shewing the 
foot of the Gentile treading down J erusalem. "We stop 
at the Great Mosque, not without remembering that 
there stood the temple once ; but the tread of the Gen- 
tile is now within. Its courts are filled with Mahomme- 
dan worshippers, just as David's castle has become 
barracks for Mahommedan soldiers. 

We come down from the walls and go out of the city 
by St Stephen's gate, called by the name of the martyr, 
though none but monks would venture to say that St 
Stephen had ever crossed its threshold. In a little we 



GETHSEMANE. 



129 



find ourselves in Gethsemane. We enter the Latin 
garden of that name, neatly kept and stocked with 
olives, cypresses, and flowers. But is this Gethsemane ? 
A stone's cast off the Greeks have enclosed another spot 
of the valley with its clump of olives ; and they say, 
" This is Gethsemane/' The Armenians will soon be 
doing the same ; for these enclosures are most profitable 
concerns. But which of the three will be Gethsemane ? 
Probably none of them. That Gethsemane was some- 
where in this hollow, which to this day is called Jes- 
ononiya, we know. There is no uncertainty as to this. 
This half-mile of garden-ground, with its numerous olives 
and gay wildflowers, is the real Gethsemane. More 
than this we cannot say. If we might fix a spot, we 
should suggest some of these fields farther up than the 
Latin or Greek enclosures. The evangelists speak of the 
garden as being " beyond the Kedron " and at " the 
Mount of Olives," (Matt. xxvi. 36, John xviii. 3).* So 
far the spot is definite ; beyond this we need not go. Let 
us keep to what is certain. The Latin garden seems 
decidedly too far down, too near the city gate and wall, 
too close by the thoroughfare across the Kedron, where 

* We read that when they had sung a hymn (or hymns, i. e engaged 
in praise, vfJbvrjoavrsg), "they set out for the Mount of Olives." As they 
were going, or when they had reached the hill, Jesus said, " All ye shall 
he stumbled," as he said before, "one of you shall betray!' After this he 
proceeded from the mount to that part of it where there was a garden 
called Gethsemane. It was in going from the city to the mount that he 
quoted Zechariah's prediction of the smitten shepherd and the scattered 
flock. Were there flocks then feeding there as there are now, and was he 
pointing to them ] 

I 



ISO THE OLIVES OF GETHSEMANE. 

the high and low roads to Bethany meet and diverge, 
too much within reach and sound of the bustle, to be a 
place of retirement. Gethsemane must have been farther 
up. This is all that we shall say. But it matters not. 
To try to fix it is as useless as to say, " Lo, here is Christ, 
or lo there/' Somewhere in this olive-shaded hollo w r , 
He found a solitude away from the noise and mockery 
of the city. Somewhere here, He cast himself on the 
ground, when his "soul was exceeding sorrowful even 
unto death, and his sweat was as it were great drops of 
blood falling down to the ground/' We could find no 
satisfaction in looking at the rock where the monks find 
a good trade in saying that his disciples fell asleep, 
or at the place where they say Judas kissed Him. 
These vain additions take away from the reality of the 
scene. The scene itself is a reality ; w r e could not think 
of destroying that by stories made for superstition, 
and spots selected, ages after, for the sake of gain. 

These old olive trees ! How venerable they seem ! 
Rough in their trunks, dark green in the upper side of 
their leaves ; but as the wind comes along the valley 
and tosses up the branches, how silvery and bright does 
the under side appear ! Are they really the trees 
under which the Lord himself has walked and knelfc 
and prayed ? Not just the same ; for Titus cut down 
every tree around Jerusalem, till he stripped her sub- 
urbs utterly bare.* But the olive, like the palm, birch, 

* "He gave his soldiers leave to set the suburbs on fire, and ordered 
that they should bring timber together and raise banks against the city. 



THE ROAD TO BETHANY. 



131 



laurel, and some other trees, is not killed by being 
cut down. It shoots up several stems in place of one. 
Now look at these olives. There is hardly one of them 
that has a single trunk. Three, four, or five stems 
come up out of each root. The stem and branches 
then may not be the same as in the days of the Lord, 
but the roots probably are. So that, thus far, they are 
really the same trees ; and as the olive is a very long- 
lived tree there is nothing unlikely in this. 

From Gethsemane we turned up to the Bethany 
road, the low road to Bethany. There can be little 
doubt that it is the same path along which so often 
walked Christ and his disciples. In several places 
it is formed of steps cut out of the rock along the 
slope of the hill ; and these identify it as the very 
way traversed by holy feet eighteen centuries ago! 
For roads, in these countries, do not change. They 
vary, indeed, in one way, — that is, they get worse and 
worse, as this has done, and as all the Syrian roads 
have done, from not being cared for ; but they keep 
the same track. That old road to Bethany ! What 
memories lie strewn along it ! Not a stone nor a 
turn but seems to speak of Him who went up it in the 
quiet evening, and came down it in the cool morning, 

. . . So the trees being cut down the suburbs were stripped naked." 
— Josephus, Jewish War, v. 6, 2. "All the trees that were about the city, 
within the distance of an hundred furlongs, had their branahes cut off." — 
ib. v. 8, L 



132 



VALLEY OF J EHOSHAPHAT. 



as he went to his daily teaching in the temple. How 
often had he turned round to gaze, as we did, upon the 
city spread beneath him ! We did not, at present, 
pursue the road far ; but, after visiting the tombs of 
the Prophets, came down the slope towards the valley 
of Jehoshaphat, Then, passing through the Jewish 
burying-ground, we visited the different tombs cut out 
in the solid rock. Almost hidden from view is the 
tomb of Jehoshaphat, its entrance nearly covered up 
with earth and little more than its entablature visible. 
The earth was quite fresh, as if recently disturbed, nor 
was the aperture quite closed. We concluded that it 
had been recently opened. From time to time this is 
done by the Jews, in order to bury here their old worn- 
out rolls. They count it unlawful to bum these ; and 
whenever a roll becomes useless by tear and wear, it is 
brought to this spot and buried in the tomb of Jehosha- 
phat. We would fain have dug into it, and got hold 
of some of these old rolls ; but we had no implements, 
and there was a great mass of thick clayey soil upon 
the entrance. We went to the tomb of Absalom, the 
body of which is cut out of the solid rock, though the 
cone or peak on the top is not. There is little doubt 
that this is the very monument which Absalom con- 
structed for himself in the king's dale (2 Sam. xviii. 
18). It is singular that the pillars which adorn its 
front are of the Ionic order. Those in the adjoining 
tomb of Zach arias, which we visited next, are the same, 
and those in the tomb of the apostle James, which we 



THE BROOK KEDRON. 



133 



also visited, are simple Doric. These architectural orders, 
then, are not really Grecian. Greece borrowed them. 
But from whom ? We cannot say from Judaea ; but, at 
least, from Phoenicia, or Eg} 7 pt, or Etruria. It may yet 
be seen that all that Greece has been admired for, in 
architecture, was to be found in Tyre, or S>lon, or Zoan, 
before one column stood upon the hill of Mars. 

After visiting these tombs we went down and crossed 
the dry bed of the Kedron. Whether, in former ages, 
it contained more water, we cannot say. Possibly it 
might ; for the land was once better watered than now 
But at present it is only after some very heavy fall of 
rain that it contains any water. Yet its Scripture 
name is the "brook Kedron/' both in the Old Testa- 
ment and the New ; and its Arabic name, " Wady Ked- 
run," preserves the memory of other days. Here 
David crossed, " barefoot" and weeping, as he ascended 
the mount (2 Sam. xv. 30).* Here Christ and his dis- 
ciples passed on their way to Bethany and Gethsemane. 
The brook might be a poor one ; but not so the histories 
that rested over it. 

We then passed up to the south-east corner of the 
city* wall, to examine the immense stones which are 
here built into it. As it is at this part alone that 
these large stones occur, and as here the temple stood, 
we infer that these are the temple stones. Not, in- 
deed in their original places ; for not one stone has 

* Of "discalceation," ay a sign of mourning, see Braunius De Vestitu 
Sacerd. Hebr., pp. 45, i6 Bynaeus de Calceis Hebraeorum. B. ii. ch. 5. 



134 



temple stones. 



been left upon another ; but still the very stones to 
which the disciples, in their admiration, pointed. Some 
were eighteen feet long by four broad, others longer 
and broader ; but we had not the means of measur- 
ing them exactly. A little farther on are four or five 
stones, in a line, on the lowest course, which look very 
like as if they were really in their old position. Not 
far from this is the half-arch of a gateway, finely carved, 
w r hich is generally believed to be one of the original 
arches of the temple. It is the entrance to one of the 
subterraneous passages, which seem to be as old as the 
days of Solomon. The whole of this angle of the wall 
is full of interest. You cannot look at any part of 
it without repeating the exclamation of the disciples, 
" See what manner of stones and what buildings are 
here V 

At night the moon came out in cloudless splendour ; 
and about midnight we got up to the roof to see the 
city by moonlight. It w r as a scene of rich but mellowed 
brilliance, such as one loves better to look upon than to 
describe. The moon was at the full, and, high in the 
heavens, seemed t3 hang right over the city, whose un- 
even and irregular mass of yellow roofs it wrapt in one 
soft veil of braide 1 silver, hiding deformities which sun- 
light exposed too faithfully, and bringing out beauties 
of shade and light, curve and angle, swell and depres- 
sion, in minaret, dome, wall, vale, and hill, such as only 
moonlight can reveal. Strange scenes had that calm 
orb looked down upon during the past three thousand 



JERUSALEM BY MOONLIGHT. 1 35 

years, transacted within this narrow circle. The armies 
of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, had 
all been here, — kindling their watchfires on yon flat 
ridge to the north, where now the moonbeams rest so 
tranquilly ; as if no noise of war had ever disturbed its 
quiet. What sounds had it listened to from the time 
when David chaunted his Psalms and Solomon his 
Songs, to the night when, led by the Son of God, the 
band in the upper chamber sung the hymn, ere they 
went out to the Mount of Olives ; from the time when 
the shouts of the Roman legions rung through the red 
streets, to the time when Crusader and Saracen alter- 
nately shook its walls with their assaults. It once 
shone upon Jehovah's majestic temple. It is now shin- 
ing on yon gaudy mosque which bears the false prophet's 
name. It is still shining on Golgotha, on Gethsemane, 
on Olivet, as in ages past ; though He whose life and 
death have given to these spots all their interest has 
departed. " He is not here, he is risen he is gone up 
on high, and J erusalem " shall not see him again till 
she shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord/' The only thing that breaks the full stillness 
of the moment, though it wakes not the still city, is the 
sound of the drum or tum-tum from some house in one 
of its central streets. That sound proclaims an approach- 
ing marriage ; and it came upon us like the cry of that 
midnight, when all shall be slumbering and sleeping, 
" Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet 
him." 



136 PLACE OF SOLOMON'S CORONATION. 

Jerusalem, Thursday, Feb. 21. 1856. — About seven, 
went out alone by the Jaffa gate, and strolled to the 
valley or hollow below the upper pool of Gihon, . . 
took a stone for my seat under an olive, and read some 
psalms, the thick foliage keeping off the bright morn- 
ing sunshine, reminding one of that verse, " I sat down 
under his shadow. with great delight" (Song. ii. 3), . . 
marked the peculiar aspect of the hollow, which rises 
on all sides into a sort of amphitheatre, on the slope of 
which, perhaps, Solomon was crowned. At the com- 
mand of David, Solomon was set upon the king's mule, 
and " brought down " from Zion to Gihon (1 Kings i. 
33, 38*). Ascending the slope opposite to Zion, Zadok 
and Nathan and Benaiah seem to have fixed upon this 
bending sweep as the place where Solomon would be 
seen from the castle of David and the walls of the city, 
and also where the inhabitants might assemble to wit- 
ness the coronation. Accordingly we read that " all 
the people came up after him, and the people piped 
with pipes and rejoiced with great joj^, so that the earth 
rent with the sound of them." This shout went down the 
valley to En-Eogel, which is not very far off, and where 
Adonijah was feasting, and alarmed him and his ad- 
herents. His company dispersed, and he himself fled 
to the temple, which was in that part of the city which 
is nearest to En-Eogel.-} - I then walked to the upper 

* There can be little doubt that Gihon was somewhere here, for Heze- 
kiah is said to have brought down the waters of Gihon, straight to the 
west side of the city of David, which would answer well to this place. 

+ Thus I wrote home at the time. ' l Gihon, Feb. 21. Here am I sit- 



Absalom's fillar. 



1S7 



pool, and examined it. There was some water in it, 
but not much. Close by, to the north-west, is a Turkish 
burying-ground to which a group of mourners were 
going. 

In the afternoon we went to examine the large temple 
stones which we had seen the day before. There was 
nothing to discover, but much to interest. From this 
we went down, and crossing the Kedron, we re-visited 
Absalom's pillar. In front of it lies an immense heap 
of small stones, while the face of the monument itself 
is scarred and worn, not by weather, but apparently by 
violence. We made inquiry, and the explanation was 
soon given. Jewish parents bring their children here, 
to remind them of Absalom's doom, and to teach them 
the sin of filial disobedience. When standing before 
the pillar they are made to take up stones and cast at 
it, as if setting their seal to the righteousness of Ab- 
salom's doom, and their abhorrence of such a course of 
sin. We added our seal to the condemnation, and our 
stones to the heap.* 

We then slowly climbed the Mount of Olives, visited 

ting in all the still bright sunshine of early morning in the place where I 
suppose Solomon was crowned. It is not a plain, but a large hollow, whose 
sides rise on all hands and form an amphitheatre, where the ten thousands 
of Israel could witness the coronation. The whole south-western part of 
the city commands a view of this valley, and the houses, on Mount Zion 
look straight down on it. It is only five or six minutes' walk from the 
Tower of David. The shout of the people could easily be heard at En- 
Rogel. I'll pull off for you a twig of the olive under which I am sitting." 

* I find that casting stones at Absalom's memory is a practice not of 
Jews only but of Moslems too. — Thomson's Travels, vol. iii. p. 175. 



138 



VIEW FROM OLIVET. 



again the tombs of the prophets on the side of the hill,* 
and soon stood upon the top. What a view ! To the east, 
the plain of Jordan, scorched and barren, with glimpses 
of the river, like a flashing scimitar half sheathed in the 
sand. Then farther south the Dead Sea, with its bright 
quicksilver gleam, and the mountains of Moab, casting 
over it the shadow of their towering precipices, bare and 
gloomy, yet with some patches that looked like verdure, 
such as where the River Arnon finds its way through 
deep recesses to the lake, redeeming some spots from 
the brown desolation that covers these nigged mountain- 
walls. Nearer us lay Bethany, the " house of dates," 
according to the usual interpretation, or the " house of 
sorrow or lowliness/' as Jerome gives it, but not visible 
to us. We could only see the eminence behind which 
it lies. On our other side lay the city, with all its 
features fully unfolded, like a flower opening to the 
noon ; tower, wall, gate, and minaret, brightening in 
the sunshine. Mr Graham has a house or tower a 
little way down the hill. To this we turned our steps ; 
and seated at the window that overlooks the city, we 

* A recent traveller briefly describes these, " They comprise two cor- 
ridors, one adjoining to the other, in the form of a couple of semicircles, 
each with rows of niches excavated within the wall for the bodies, one 
above and the other below its fellow," (Dupuis' Holy Places, vol. ii p. 6). 
The fol lowing remark of this writer is worth quoting, "were it possible 
to lay the neighbourhood and the holy city bare, by cutting a section 
through some portion of it, I am inclined to the opinion that these sections 
would exhibit a succession of cells, comparable to nothing that exists else- 
where, but rather resembling the cellular construction of a hornet's nest," 
(lb. p. 8). 



BETHANY. 



139 



read some of the chapters that relate to Olivet and 
Gethsemane. We then ascended to the roof, and with 
a fine large telescope, we examined various distant ob- 
jects, such as the Herodion or Frank Mountain, and 
.Neby-Semwll. We expected in a few days to see these 
nearer ; but meanwhile it was worth looking at them 
from afar, specially from such a point of elevation. 
Leaving this tower we crossed the hill, and soon found 
ourselves on the upper road leading to Bethany. We 
soon came within sight of it, walking through olive- 
trees, almond-trees, fig-trees, and pomegranate-trees. 
What a spot of beauty and peace ! In a w T oody hollow 
half way up one of the eastern off-shoots of Olivet, there 
it lies, like the nest of one of its own turtle-doves, em- 
bosomed in verdure ! The old ruin that rises above all 
the other houses, and is said to be the house of Lazarus, 
brought up the special scenes and memories that give 
Bethany such strange attractiveness. It was " the town 
of Mary and her sister Martha/' (John xi. 1). It is 
called a " certain village where a certain woman named 
Martha received him into her house/' (Luke x. 38). 
Here, too, was <c the house of Simon the leper/' at whose 
table the Lord was sitting when Mary brought out her 
spikenard, (John xi. 2 ; Matt. xxvi. 7 ; Mark xiv. 3). 
It was here that he "wept;" it was here that he 
" groaned in spirit and was troubled " it was here that 
he shewed himself " the resurrection and the life it 
w r as here that he sought retreat from city-noise and 
temple-strife, soothing himself not merely with vil- 



no 



BETHANY. 



lage-quiet, but still more with the love and fellowship 
of Lazarus and his sisters. The present name of the 
village is El-Azariyah, as if all that was memorable 
about it were associated with him whom the Son of God 
raised from the dead. The day was fast going down, so 
we could not visit the interior ; which was perhaps the 
less to be regretted as it is distance that lends such 
special enchantment to Syrian towns, as we saw at Heb- 
ron and Bethlehem. One stroll through a single street 
or bazaar breaks the spell. To this even Bethany 
and Jerusalem are no exceptions. It was not, however, 
the fear of having the spell broken, but the lateness of 
the hour that hindered our visiting Bethany. We had 
to hasten down the lower road, across the Kedron, up 
by the slope of Moriah, in order to reach the Zion gate 
before it was closed. But when we came it was closed. 
So on we walked to the Jaffa gate, as it stands open a 
little later. It, too, was closed. However, by fair words 
and a few piastres, we persuaded the guard to open it ; 
for nothing in the east, either law, or custom, or right, 
can resist the touch of gold or silver. " Money answer- 
eth all things/' (Eccl. x. 19). But the entrance into the 
better city is free. Night and day there is welcome. 
Of the rebuilded J erusalem it is written, " thy gates 
shall be open continually ; they shall not be shut day 
nor night/' (Isa. lx. 11) ; and of the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem, we read that u the gates of it shall not be shut 
at all by day, for there shall be no night there/' (Rev. 
xxi. 25). 



David's tomb. 



141 



Jerusalem, Friday, Feb. 22. 1856. — Went out about 
seven, and walked along Mount Zion. . . Sat down 
under an olive in a ploughed field upon that hill, a 
little in front of the Tomb of David. In that tomb 
there is little doubt the dust of that king rests, as well 
as the dust of many of his successors ; for of the most 
of them it is said that " they were buried in the City 
of David, in the sepulchres of their fathers/' (2 Chron. 
xii. 16 ; xxi. 1).* But no access can now be got to the 
interior of this tomb any more than to the Cave of 
Machpelah. The Moslem guards them. The Gentile 
refuses to the Jew entrance into the sepulchres of his 
fathers. Even in his own land Israel is an alien. 
Temple and tomb are alike forbidden him. Before me 
was the Mount of Olives, and in the distance the dark 
hills of Moab, over which the sun had just risen. 
There is a slight depression or slack of the hills at the 
right of Olivet, where I see a blue gleam apparently at 
the foot of these mountains of Moab. Is it Jordan, 
or is it the Dead Sea ? I am told that neither of these 
is visible from Mount Zion ; but there is one of them. 
It seems to me Jordan ; the natives tell me that if it 

* Asa was buried in the City of David, but in a sepulchre of his own, 
(2 Chron. xvi. 14). Jehoram was also buried in the City of David, '-but 
not in the sepulchres of the kings," (2 Chron. xxi. 20). In connection with 
these sepulchres there was " a field of burial belonging to the kings," in 
which Uzziah the leper was buried, (2 Chron. xxvi. 23). Ahaz was 
buried in Jerusalem, "but not in the sepulchres of the kings," ( 2 
Chron. xxviii. 27)- Hezekiah was buried " in the chiefest of the sepulchres 
(literally "the ascent of the sepulchres n ) of the sons of David," (2 Chron. 
xxxii. 33). Marasseh was buried in his own house, (2 Chron. xxxiii. 20), 



142 



ZION PLOUGHED AS A FIELD. 



is anything it is the Dead Sea, It is but a thin edge 
of blue, with hills before and hills behind ; but it gleams 
brightly and relieves the wildness of the view. Below 
me, and not far off, is the village of Siloam or Selwan, 
giving its name to the fountain, or perhaps taking its 
name from it ; for in the east it is not first a village and 
then a well, but first a well and then a village. As I 
returned to the city, I pulled up and preserved some of 
the green corn growing on the hill, as a witness to the 
literal fulfilment of the prophetic word, " For your sake 
shall Zion be ploughed as a field/' (Mia iii. 12). But 
go where you will around Jerusalem, you find every- 
where the evidence of the exact accomplishment of the 
divine word. Israel's sorrow has been no figure. Her 
cities and her hills are proof that every word of Scrip- 
ture is minutely and accurately true. This ploughed field 
through which I am w r alking, once the site of palaces, 
the fragments of whose tesselated floors lie all around ; 
this handful of green corn which I have just plucked, 
shews in what sense God meant his word to be taken, 
and indicate a literality of fulfilment which can only be 
accounted for by the fact, that the words as well as the 
thoughts of Scripture are entirely and accurately divine. 

At three o'clock we went to the J ewish place of wail- 
ing inside the city, at a place outside the wall of the 
mosque, which is most likely, from its position, to be 
part of the old temple wall, and where the large stones, 
w T hich are enormous blocks, evidently belong to the old 
temple ; some of them perhaps in their original posi- 



THE PLACE OF WAILING. 



143 



tion. The place is narrow, being part of a court or 
alley paved with square stones ; but it is away from 
the noise of the town, and the Jews are allowed to 
meet here each Friday in peace, no one making them 
afraid. We counted thirty-five Jews, men and women, 
of many nations, as their different dresses shewed. 
Some were reading the 102d Psalm, some the Lamen- 
tations, and, strange to say, some the Song of Solomon. 
Some were sitting on the ground with their Hebrew 
Bibles, or parts of Bibles, before them, which they most 
willingly shewed us. Most of them were standing 
with their faces to the wall, and bending their bodies 
as they read aloud the psalm or the prophecy, touching 
the second row of the stones with their foreheads. Be- 
sides this muttered reading of the Scriptures, they 
sometimes uttered a sentence in a louder voice, in which 
all, in an instant, joined, giving the sound of a bitter 
and impassioned cry. But in general there did not ap- 
pear much real feeling. Some were looking about them 
at the Gentile strangers, others were reading in a way 
such as shewed that they were going through a form. 
Just as the mourners at Hebron among the tombs 
did not seem to be uttering much sorrow, so these 
Hebrew wailers did not seem real mourners. Yet 
there might be some, saying with Jeremiad's heart, 
" The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred 
his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the 
enemy the walls of her palaces. . . Mine eyes do fail 



144 



JEWISH WAILERS. 



with tears, for the destruction of the daughter of my 
people/' (Lam. ii. 7, 11). 

In the fourth century there was a stone to which the 
Jews came once a year, anointing it, and at the same 
time lamenting and rending their garments.* But this 
may not have been the present place of wailing ; it 
looks more like the great rock of the mosque. Ben- 
jamin of Tudela mentions a place on which the Jews 
inscribed their names ; but of these there are no traces 
here.*f- He also speaks once and again of "the 
mourners of the downfall of Jerusalem/'^ He men- 
tions also a class of Jews in Gentile lands whose profes- 
sion was that of " mourners of Zion and of Jerusalem /'§ 

From the place of wailing we went to see the stones 
of the original arch that connected Moriah and Zion. 
They are remarkable for their size, being twenty-one 
feet long by five or six broad, and they are no less pecu- 
liar as "being evidently in their original position. The 

* Jerusalem Itinerary, p. 279. + Asher's Benjamin, vol. i. p. 71. 

t lb., vol. i. p. 74. 

§ lb., vol. i. p. 113. At another place he thus speaks of them moro 
particularly, — "Whenever a traveller visits them they are rejoiced thereat, 
and hospitably receive him. They are full of hopes, and say, be of 
good spirit, dear brethren, for the salvation of the Lord will be quick, like 
the twinkling of an eye ; and were it not that we doubted hitherto that 
the end of our captivity had not yet arrived, we should have assembled 
long ago. But this is impossible before the time of song arrive, and the 
sound of the cooing dove gives warning; then will the message arrive, 
and we will ever say, the name of the Lord be exalted. . Those that spend 
their time as mourners of the downfall of Zion and the destruction of 
Jerusalem, are always dressed in black clothes and pray for mercy before 
the Lord, for the sake of their brethren." —Vol. i. p. 163. 



GARDEN ON ZION. 



145 



curve forming the spring of the arch is quite distinct, 
and the size of the arch itself must have been immense. 
Indeed, everything connected with the buildings on Mo- 
riah and Zion was on a large scale, — stones, arches, 
courts, and towers. Massive magnificence is the charac- 
teristic of Solomon's work, and it is curious to notice 
how much the size of individual stones adds to the great- 
ness of the whole. It is hardly possible for a brick 
building to be truly great or impressive. 

A garden lies at the foot of this part of the wall, 
hedged in by prickly pears, and stocked with cauliflowers 
of a very large size. Indeed, the cauliflowers on Mount 
Zion are the largest I have any where seen. One would 
be a dish for a considerable company. We had scaled 
the little wall, pushed through the prickly pears, and 
were moving up and down the garden at our ease, 
when the EfTendi to whom it belonged appeared. He 
was very angry ; but he was in the right and we were 
in the wrong, for we had trespassed on private property. 
He said that he would have given us the key and taken 
us in, had we but asked him ; but he did not like such 
intrusion. Such we were told was the meaning of his 
Arabic, for some of us at least, understood not a word 
of what he was saying. We made our apology at once, 
and confessed ourselves wrongdoers, but told him our 
object. He was pacified at once and began freely to 
converse. We asked him as to the arch in question. 
He said that it was the work of Solomon, for whom, 

K 



146 



EFFEXDES HOUSE. 



be it remembered, the Moslem has as great a reve- 
rence as the Jew. We inquired how such enormous 
stones could be lifted. He told us that the " Gins" or 
genii did it for Solomoru* He then asked us to go into 
his house, which not only overlooked this garden, but 
on the other side overlooked the mosque. We went 
with him to the first door which was close at hand ; but 
admittance was denied ; the women were in that part 
at present, and instead of quitting, to let us in, they re- 
mained there and compelled us to take a circuit. This 
we did, and soon found ourselves in a good Moslem house 
with large rooms and windows that gave the survey of 
the whole platform of the mosque. We did not fail to 
use our advantage and saw all that could be seen. He 
then led us into a small well-furnished apartment, where 
pipes and coffee were presented, of the latter of which 
we partook. We then hinted at a backshish ; but he 
was an effendi, a gentleman, could we offer him money 
for a visit to his house ? Would he not be affronted ? 
Not at all. He quietly said that he did not ask any- 
thing, but if it were offered, there would be no refusal 
and no affront. So he pocketed the offered dollar with 
great good-will. 

* This is the old Moslem tradition, " When God revealed unto Solo- 
mon that he should build a temple, Solomon assembled all the wisest men, 
genii, and Afrites of the earth, and appointed one division of them to 
build, another to cut blocks and columns from its marble mines, and 
another to dive into the ocean deeps and fetch therefrom pearls and coral." 
—Jalal Addin's History of the Temple of Jerusalem, p. 32. 



ACELDAMA. 



147 



We then went to Aceldama, opposite Mount Zion.* 
The caves here are very numerous, and have evidently 
been sepulchres ; yet the modern Jew makes no use of 
these empty tombs of his fathers. They are carefully 
hewn out in the rock, with chambers inside, and some- 
times a well-carved front, on one or two of which there 
are inscriptions. None of them go dovmwards. They 
are all cut horizontally into the face of the rock ; so 
that there was no letting down into the tomb, as with 
us, but rather a lifting up. The entrances were in 
general small, and could easily be filled up with rolling 
a stone to them, as in the tomb of J oseph of Arimathea. 
We explored one of them with candles, and found it 
large beyond any idea that we had formed. Its cham- 
bers were endless : some to the right, some to the 
left, some in front, extending one beyond the other in 
succession, and each of these chambers shelved or boxed 
round with receptacles for the coffins, — all cut out of 
the rock. The coffins, or sarcophagi, were away, but 
their contents were there ; and the amount of skulls, 
bones, and dust, is beyond description. The whole of 

* The present name of this spot is El-Fardus, — that is, Paradise ; or, 
at least, it belongs to a hill which goes by that name. Can this be from 
Solomon's Fardus or orchard immediately below 1 For the king's gardens 
are just at hand. It is too far off to be connected with the Frank moun- 
tain which goes by the name of El-Fureidis, or Little Paradise ; but there 
seem to have been several places of that name. Mr Wilde says that it is 
still called, by Mohammedans as well as Christians, Aceldama. But Mr 
Valentiner, of the Jerusalem mission, made particular inquiry for me as to 
this, and found that Fardus was the native name. Tobler, in his minute 
and valuable map of the city gives Jebel Kebur, the hill of tombs, as the 
name. 



148 



THE FIELD OF BLOOD. 



this rocky slope is now called Aceldama ; but whether 
all this was the field purchased by Judas' money (Acts 
i. 18, 19), may be doubted. Thirty pieces of silver 
would not buy very much land in the neighbourhood 
of a city. Perhaps the spot called Aceldama was 
originally only a part of this great burying ground, 
though afterwards the whole was called by this name.* 
The matter is not of much moment ; but the scene 
itself is the monument of guilt, the record of man's 
hatred of God, and his willingness to make gain, not 
merely by the sale of God's gifts, but of God himself. 
Here was " the field of blood/' and this was " the price 
of blood," (Matt, xxvii. 6). It had originally been the 
property of the potters. Perhaps a large pottery was 
established here ; but then it was for sale, and Judas' 
thirty pieces were the price. It was the " reward of ini- 

* The reader will find full information as to this whole place, and espe- 
cially the tomb which I have mentioned, in "Wilde's Narrative,' ' vol. ii. 
pp. 337-357. He thus sums up his architectural and anatomical analysis 
of the sepulchre and its contents: — " From all the circumstances con- 
nected with this tomb ; its being situated on the acknowledged field of 
blood ; the appearance of its external architecture, particularly the door, 
which differs from all other sepulchres that we have yet heard of, except 
the one at Petra, in being formed for occasional opening ; from its curious 
internal hall and chambers ; the remarkable human remains found in 
them, so perfectly different from one another, and these belonging to 
foreign nations, and not to Hebrews, I conceive there is a strong probabi- 
lity, almost amounting to presumptive proof, that this sepulchre was one 
of these tombs, if not the actual one, purchased with the thirty pieces of 
silver to bury strangers in." Mr Wilde says that he saw the " marks and 
remains of bricks and pottery ware in the adjoining ravine." — (IL p. 339) 



JUDAS. 



149 



quity" that bought this ground on which we stand, 
(Acts i. 18). Here is the investment of the traitor's ill- 
gotten gain. Strange neighbourhood and strange re- 
membrances ! Judas, the chief priests, the potters, 
the silver which rang upon the temple floor, the bitter 
cry, " I have sinned in that I have betrayed the inno- 
cent blood" (Matt, xxvii 4), the cruel taunt in re- 
turn, " What is that to us !" 



CHAPTER VII. 



HILL OP EVIL COUNSEL SYNAGOGUES — SEPHARDIM CARAITE — HINNOM 

— BIR EYUB — THE MOUNT OF OFFENCE — KING'S GARDENS SELWAN 

UM ED-DERAJ — GETHSEMANE MOUNT OF OLIVES — A MOONLIGHT 

WALK. 

Jerusalem, Saturday, Feb. 22. — A little after sun- 
rise went out by the Jaffa gate, and, turning to the left, 
took the path that winds down the slope of Zion. As 
I went along, the pleasant sound of bees, " the wild bees 
of Palestine/' clustering over the pink blossoms of an 
almond tree on the left, greeted me, The tree itself, 
all flower, without a single leaf, was a gay contrast to 
the dark olives below. A few days ago it was brown 
and bare ; to day it is all brightness ; and to this sudden 
change God made reference, when, taking Jeremiah to 
one of the orchards of Anathoth he bade him look at the 
" rod of the almond-tree/' and added, " I will hasten my 
word to perform it," (Jerem. i. 11, 12.)* 

I crossed the small valley or hollow of Gihon, at the 

* This seems also the reference in Ezek. vii. 10, " behold the day, be- 
hold it is come ; the morning is gone forth ; the rod hath blossomed j pride 
hath budded." These gay blossoms of the almond-tree are like the pride 
of Judah, bursting forth and then shaken to the ground. 



HILL OF EVIL COUNSEL. 



151 



pool, which, though tolerably deep, is quite dry. Going 
up the slope to the south, right opposite Zion, I took the 
path which winds round the hill, following the windings 
of Solomon's aqueduct for about half an hour, into the 
valley on the other side. I then went up wha,t is named 
the " Hill of evil counsel/' or as it is sometimes named, 
J ebel Deir, the hill of the convent, as the valley below 
is called Wady er-Rahabi, the valley of the monks. 
Tradition says that here was the house of Caiaphas, 
where the chief priests met to take counsel " against the 
Lord and against his anointed/ ' Hard by is the legen- 
dary tree of Judas, under which I read that solemn 
Psalm, which may be called " Judas's Psalm/' the cix., 
which, as I read it over, did not seem the utterance of 
personal vindictiveness, but the calm sentence of the 
judge, " depart ye cursed/' given us in detail. 

Having walked about for some time among the ruins, 
I sat down on a fragment of the broken wall to mark 
the whole scene. A mist shut out the mountains of 
Moab, which form so striking a background to many of 
the views about Jerusalem, and which, like Serbal in 
the desert, or Jebel esh-Sheikh in the north, seem al- 
ways watching you, yet with no unfriendly eye. But 
the Mount of Olives, with the village of Siloam beneath, 
stood out clearly ; the irregular square houses looking 
almost as if cut out of the rock. A few olfves clothed 
the hill, but the numerous out-cropping lines of grey 
limestone gave a bald appearance to the slope. The 
road to Bethany creeping up the face of the hill was 



152 JERUSALEM PAST AND FUTURE. 



distinctly traceable. To the left was Zion, ploughed 
over in most parts up to the very walls, sprinkled with 
olives in others, and disfigured with white rubbish in 
others. All this was once built upon. Some of the 
finest houses or palaces in Jerusalem were there. May 
not many of their stones be still lying beneath these 
mounds of old debris ? 

Each part of the view called up old histories, some 
dark, some bright. All around Jerusalem, it is the same ; 
and no amount of looking or visiting seems to exhaust 
the store. Turn where you will, a text, an event, a 
scene, a life, a death, is suggested by what you look 
upon. " The eye is not satisfied with seeing/' (Eccles. 
i. 8). Sitting here amid such memories you forget the 
present ; you go back into the past or forward into the 
future. The Jew has no present ; he lives in the past 
or the future ; and the Christian sitting down amid the 
ruins of J erusalem, can well understand the feelings of 
the son of Abraham. J erusalem as it was, and J erusa- 
lem as it shall be ; these are the two great objects of 
engrossment. The Jerusalem on which we now are 
looking, is but a shadow or a dream. But the morning 
is advancing, so I quit these ruins and descend, return- 
ing to the city by the way that I came. 

There is no stir in or around the city, and in this re- 
spect one feels at once the difference between Jerusalem 
and Alexandria. Though the latter has not the bustle 
of London, or Liverpool, or Glasgow, still there is in it 
the quick motion of social and commercial life. It is 



THE QUIET OF THE CITY. 



153 



not so in El-Kuds. Its day of crowd, and mirth, and 
vital energy is past ; or rather has not yet come. These 
four soldiers, idling the hour away, on the steps of the 
old castle at the Jaffa gate ; yon Moslem trio, finding 
their way down to the bazaar, with pipe in mouth ; the 
Latin patriarch up yonder, on the flat roof of his dwell- 
ing, pacing to and fro to watch every goer out and comer 
in ; — these are specimens of the city's life and stir. Not 
that there is solitude either within or without. The 
bazaars have at all times their stream of buyers, though 
it flows slowly and heavily. At every hour from sun- 
rise to sunset, save on Fridays from eleven to one, you 
meet with people moving out and in by the gates ; — 
camels, horses, mules, donkeys, each with his peculiar 
load pass and repass. Go along the Bethlehem road, 
you meet with stragglers. Wander out at the Zion gate 
by the road which skirts Gihon, and crosses Moriah, and 
leads to Kefr Sel wan, you meet with fellahin, carrying vege- 
tables, perhaps the enormous cauliflowers of Mount Zion.* 

* Corn, cauliflowers, and lentiles of all kinds were growing on Mount 
Zion. The Apostle Peter, while he remained at Jerusalem, would get 
here materials for the meritorious broth which tradition says he fed upon, 
after his fall. " Morning after morning, cock-crowing after cock-crowing, 
St Peter wept his fall. Some lentile broth, of the daily value of a farthing, 
was for his whole life-long, the penitential food of him by whose hands God 
wrought special miracles ; by whose shadow passing by he healed the sick ; 
through whom He first admitted both J ews and Gentiles into the Church ; 
to whom, first in dignity among the other apostles, He gave the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven."— See " Kepentance from love of God life-long," 
a Sermon by Dr Pusey, preached at Oxford on Thursday, April 2. 1857. 
The preacher, as well as his friends, the ecclesiastical fabulists, had for- 
gotten that he " who is weak eateth herbs " (Rom. xiv. 2). 



154 



SPANISH JEWS. 



Go up the road to Bethany you meet women with 
water-jars on their head. Still, though there is no 
solitude, there is the nearest approach to it that can 
be, in the midst of ten thousand people. There is silence 
at midnight, broken only by the voice of the muezzin 
or the marriage tom-toms ; there is quiet at midday, for, 
save when, here and there, the war of Arab tongues 
begins, no hum or din, either far or near, frets the ear. 
Stillness and sluggishness are over all, and it is only at 
the different European Consulates that you get a glimpse 
of quicker life. 

" What aileth thee now ? 
For thou art gone up, all of thee, to the housetops ? 
Thou that wert full of stirs, 
A town of bustle, 
A city of joy?" Isa. xxii. 1, 2. 

A little after ten we set out to visit the synagogue of 
the Sephardim or Spanish Jews. Their language is an 
impure dialect of Spanish, though I suppose they know 
their old tongue, and also perhaps the tongue of El- 
Kuds, that is, Arabic ; for Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, 
Latin, Arabic, have all been in turn the language of 
Jerusalem. We were too late for the regular service ; 
but in one of the recesses of the synagogue there sat 
a teacher expounding the law, or some part of it. This 
it seems is common. Some one, more learned or per- 
haps more talkative than the rest, acts as lecturer. 
Round him the people gather when the regular worship 
is over ; both hearing and asking questions. He also 



THE SYNAGOGUE. 



155 



goes about holding meetings in private houses ; yet not 
for hire, but for love of the work. He was a man under 
forty, with a keen eye, an expressive face, and a vigor- 
ous tongue. He was lecturing on the Sabbath, ex- 
pounding the law concerning it, and answering objec- 
tions. We listened for a few minutes, and then walked 
through the empty synagogue to see its structure, 
which had nothing remarkable in any part of it. No 
architecture, no ornament, no painting, either within or 
without, and hardly any plan. A plain and somewhat 
shabby building, with nothing to attract, it seemed 
quite in keeping with the poverty of those who wor- 
shipped there. A modern poet, describing a Jewish 
synagogue, has spoken of the " latticed galleries, shining" 
and " dazzling his vision," with glimpses of " Israel's 
loveliest daughters, in their beauty half divine." He 
may have been painting a scene in London or New 
York ; but not in Jerusalem. Not that one desires to 
see a splendid synagogue in Jerusalem. It would be 
out of keeping with the people, and the land, and the 
city. It would speak less of old J ewish grandeur and 
of coming glory. At one end of it there was a press 
or " what-not," into which were cast all manner of 
fragments of Hebrew Scriptures and prayer-books, all 
in rags, and covered with dust. No relics of manu- 
script rolls are there, as these are all buried, when 
worn out in the tomb of Jehoshaphat. 

From this synagogue we passed to that of the Karaite 
Jews. Worship was over there, but we went into the 



156 



KARAITE JEWS. 



house of the chief Rabbi, by name Rabbi Daud, who 
received us courteously and asked us to be seated. In 
a few minutes most of the Karaite community gathered 
round us. It numbers eight or nine families who dwell 
together in one large house. They were by far the best- 
looking Jews that we had seen ; not thin and wan like 
most of their kindred here, but well favoured and plea- 
sant in countenance, yet with an eye quite as keen and 
intelligent as the rest. They are the most accessible and 
least bigoted of the Jewish sects, rejecting Rabbinical 
tradition, and clinging to Scripture alone. It was only 
the Rabbi himself that spoke, the others, standing on 
all sides, eagerly listened. He spoke a peculiar kind of 
Spanish, and Mr Crawford acted as interpreter. 

" Your nation is scattered, how is this f we asked. 

" For our sins," was the reply of the Rabbi. 

" And how are these sins to be taken away ?" 

" Bypraj^er and repentance/' 

" But are you sure that God will accept your prayer 
and repentance V 

" Yes, we believe that he will/' 

" But is nothing more needed than these ?" 

" Nothing. These are enough." 

" But in the days of your fathers, something more 
was needed/' we rejoined. 

" What was thai ?" 

" The blood of the sacrifices." 

" Yes, the blood was needed then." 

" But is it not needed now ?" we asked. 



INTERVIEW WITH THE RABBI. 157 

" No. Prayer and repentance are enough/' said he. 

" But God would not accept the prayers of your 
fathers without the blood, will he accept their children's 
prayers without it ? " 

" Yes ; God is very merciful." 

" True, God is very merciful ; but he was so in the 
days of your fathers, yet he would not accept their 
prayers without the blood ; do you think he has changed?" 

" God is merciful," was his reply. 

" Surely, He is so ; but if he would not accept the 
prayers of Moses or David without blood, will he receive 
yours ? 

He had no other answer but " the mercy of God," so 
we could not press the point farther. It was clear, 
however, that he did feel there was something awanting. 
He had no sacrifice as his fathers had, and yet he had 
no substitute for it. The type was gone, for his temple 
was in the dust, and yet he had nothing in its room. 
He had neither casket nor gem ; the former was buried* 
beneath the ruins of his temple, and the latter was in 
other hands than his.* 

The Rabbi was far from being offended at our words, 
and shook us warmly by the hand, as we rose up from 
our divans to inspect the copy of the law made use of 
in the synagogue, which is in the under-part of the 

* Chrysostom says finely in one of his discourses against the Jews, 
(l Wonderful and incredible ! The Jew has the whole earth for his temple ; 
but nowhere is it lawful for him to sacrifice. From Jerusalem alone he is 
shut out, where only it is lawful to sacrifice." 



158 



KARAITE BIBLE. 



house. It is small and dark, yet not dirty, and he 
shewed us gladly through every part of it. At one end 
of it, screened off by a curtain, in imitation of the Holy 
of Holies, the law is kept, carefully wrapt up. It is not 
a roll, but a large quarto volume of vellum, beautifully 
written and strongly bound. It is said to be 530 years 
old. We were allowed to handle it freely. As we were 
leaving, the whole community, young and old, male and 
female, gathered round us, bright and cheerful. We 
had to shake hands with all. They are a most interest- 
ing little community ; without bigotry or prejudice or 
hatred of the Gentile ; disliked by other Jews because 
holding fast the Old Testament and casting off Talmu- 
dical traditions.* Their ears are open to hear the good 
news concerning Him who " has come in the flesh/' and 
who " has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." 

Other instances were mentioned of willingness to 
hear on the part of Jews of other sects. A group of 
Jews standing at one of the city gates, had gathered 
round one of the converts, and made inquiries respect- 
ing the New Testament and Jesus of Nazareth, which 
shewed how ill-content the Jewish mind is with itself 

* In the year 1835, all the Karaites had left Jerusalem for Constanti- 
nople. Since that they have returned. They are not numerous either 
here or elsewhere. They muster pretty strong in the Crimea and in one 
or two other parts. Some twenty-five years ago they had their synagogue 
in Jerusalem, in a small room underground, interpreting somewhat fanci- 
fully Psalm cxxx. 1, Out of the depths, Jehovah, have I cried unto 
thee though the word depth " (emek) merely means a low place or 
valley. 



SO CALLED VALLEY OF HINNOM. 



159 



and its unbelief. But then the opposition of some is 
exceeding bitter, and shews itself both in private and in 
public. One of the missionaries entered a synagogue 
one day. A rabbi was preaching. The moment he saw 
the missionary enter, he stopped, and shouted at the 
height of his voice, " Shemah Israel/' &c, " Hear, O 
Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one " as if to 
turn every eye in scorn to one who could maintain that 
Jesus was the Son of God. This is the raltying-cry of 
the Jews. It is a watch-word worth a dozen of argu- 
ments to them. 

In the afternoon we went out by the Zion-gate, and 
pursued our way to what is called the Valley of Hin- 
nom. It is a continuation of Gihon, but deeper and 
more rocky. It is more like a ravine than a valley, but 
with olive-trees sprinkled over it. The south side is 
lined with rugged precipices, which form an irregular 
wall of considerable extent. Every three or four yards 
a black stripe goes up the rock evidently caused by 
smoke, as if so many fires had been kindled at or near 
the foot. They reminded us of the idolatrous fires in 
the days of Israel's apostasy, when the children were 
made to pass through the fire to Moloch. " Manasseh 
caused his children to pass through the fire in the 
Valley of the Son of Hinnom," (2 Chron. xxxiii. 6). 

W e went next to the well of Nehemiah, as the Jews 
call it, or Bir Eyub as the natives name it. Here the 
two valleys of the Gihon and the Kedron may be said 
to meet, nearly a mile from the Zion-gate. The well is 



160 



BIR EYUB. 



deep, and carefully built over. It supplies the neigh- 
bourhood with water for man and beast, as we saw by 
the drawers of water, and by the troughs for cattle that 
were beside the well. In the time of the heavy rains, 
when the Kedron pours in its sudden torrent, and other 
secret tributaries find their way into its depths, it over- 
flows. Then Jerusalem rejoices and keeps holiday ; men. 
women, and children, all in gala dress, come forth to 
celebrate the event. Such is the preciousness of water 
in these thirsty climes. Bir Eyub is the native name 
for it. When, or from whom it took this name is not 
known ; but I suspect that it is a Mahommedan, not a 
Jewish nor Christian name, and that it goes back to the 
time of Salah ed-dm, Ibn Eyub, or the close of the 
twelfth century, when this mighty prince, of whom his- 
tory and romance have so largely spoken, occupied the 
throne of J erusalem. Saladin was well known as a pro- 
vider of fountains and khans, no less than as a soldier, 
and there is nothing unlikely in his giving his father's 
name, the name of the great Eyubite family, to a 
well of Jerusalem. Very probably he found a well here, 
or at least a cistern, which he deepened and enlarged. 
But that the cistern which he thus improved was En- 
Rogel is very unlikely. A deep well or tank is not 
likely to be called En, a " fountain f and besides, Jose- 
phus tells us that En Rogel was in the midst of the 
king's gardens, which are some two hundred yards nearer 
the city. 

Just above us was the southern shoulder of the 



THE KING ? i GARDENS. 



161 



mount of " corruption " or " ofTence " — " the hill that 
is BEFORE Jerusalem " ( Kings 1 xi. 7), where Solomon 
" built an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of 
Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the children 
of Ammon." Up on yon height stood " the high places 
that were BEFORE (east of) Jerusalem, which were on 
the right HAND of the mount of corruption" (2 Kings 
xxiii. 13), which Josiah defiled, breaking the images 
in pieces, cutting down the groves, and filling their places 
with the bones of men. 

We next passed to " the King's gardens/' a walk of 
some five minutes from Bir Eyub. These occupy the 
more level ground at the angle between the vallies, 
just below Siloam, — where the Tyropaeon opened out, 
or at least ended in the spacious and well-watered 
basin formed by the four hills of Zion, Ophel, Acel- 
dama, and the Mount of Offence. The soil of these 
gardens seems rich, and the waters of Siloam spread 
over their different compartments, so that fruit-trees 
and vegetables flourish vigorously. The superior green 
of this spot strikes the eye at once, and you see that it 
owes this to its natural site, and not wholly to artificial 
cultivation. What it is to-day, it must have been for 
ages past, whether under Solomon or Saladin. The 
owners, or at least the cultivators, of these gardens are 
chiefly the inhabitants of the overhanging village, Kefr 
Silwan, the village of Siloam, which is only separated 
from them by the bed of the Kedron, which here for a 
little space, takes the form of a deep cleft or narrow 



162 



WATERED BY SILOAM. 



gulley. This is the place mentioned by Nehemiah when 
he speaks of " the wall of the pool of Siloah by the 
Kings garden/' (Neh. iii. 15.) and by Josephus when 
he speaks of Adonijah feasting "by the fountain which 
is without the city, in the King's paradise " or garden. 
Though the allusions in Canticles are perhaps more 
specially to the gardens of Etham near Bethlehem, yet 
they may quite as well point to the scene on which we 
are now looking. It is a "garden enclosed/' (iv. 12), 
and doubtless was once much more so ; and here is the 
" spring shut up," the " fountain sealed." Here too is 
the " fountain of gardens," the " well of living waters," 
(iv. 15,) and "streams from Lebanon." Here the " north 
wind" coming down the valley of the Kedron, and the 
south coming up Wadi-en-Nar, would blow upon the 
garden, making its spices to flow out, and its frag- 
rance to go up over the city. Into this garden, lying 
in this sheltered hollow, the king would " go down" 
(vi. 2) " by the stairs which go down from the city of 
David" (Neh. iii. 15), which is not far off on yon height. 
These gardens drew their richness and verdure from 
Siloam, whose waters spread themselves over the small 
terraced levels which occupy the almost imperceptible 
slope which ends in the bed of the Kedron beneath.* Into 

* The J ews say that the sewerage of the temple was brought to these 
gardens, and that this, together with the waters of Siloam, gave them 
their fruitfulness. " Rabbi Simeon saith, it (the blood) was poured on 
the west side (of the altar) and fell into an underground channel and con- 
veyed into the valley of the Kedron and sold to gardeners to fatten their 
grounds." — Ltghtfoofs Temple Service, ch. viii. 2, 4. Cramerus de Ara t 
ch. iv. 3, p. 26. 



SILOAM. 



163 



this bed the waters of the pool do not seem to find their 
way, as some old travellers affirm, but are lost in the 
intervening soil. And it is more pleasant to think of 
" Siloah's brook" thus passing off, losing itself in giving 
vital sap to the olive, the fig, the pomegranate, the sy- 
camore, or the lily ; than helping to wash down the 
filth of the Kedron, or depositing itself amid the brine 
of the Sea of Sodom. 

We now went up to the pool of Siloam itself, so often 
described both by pen and pencil that I need not try a 
sketch. It has been a well-built oblong tank, some 
fifty feet long, nearly twenty deep, and somewhat less 
than this wide.* Its crumbling walls, broken pillars, 
falling arches, wasted steps, and ruinous-looking aspect, 
give no idea of what it may have been in days when it 
was better cared for. On the one side I observed the 
fragments of six pillars, from which may have sprung 
five arches to form a porch or porches, not unlike what 
Bethesda must have been, (John v. 2). It was empty 
when we saw it.*f* Its supply is chiefly from an upper 

* " Then came we eftsoone to the poole of Silo, where Mr Burrell and I 
washed ourselves ; and hence we were shewn the place where the prophet 
Isaiah was sawn in pieces." — Travailes of two English Pilgrims, (a.D. 
1611), p. 15. 

+ In Jewish days Siloaru had better supply than this, else Josephus 
would not have described it as " sweet and plentiful," (yXvKsTav rz %al 
atoXXjjv ; Jewish War, b. v. 4, 1), at present it is neither; nor was it so 
even in the days of the Crusaders. " Turbidae et lutulentae" are the epi- 
thets applied to its waters ; and one mouthful could only be got, " duobua 
nummis et multo sanguine." (De Waha, Labores Herculis Christiani 
Godfredi Bullionii, p. 421.) It is not unlikely that the overflowings of the 



164 



THE TUNNEL. 



fountain, which finds its way into this lower one by a 
well-cut conduit, more than a quarter of a mile long. 
The tunnelling and boring of this passage must have 
been a work of great cost and toil ; yet just such a work 
as eastern kings have spent a kingdom's treasure to 
achieve ; such a work as finds a place for itself above 
battles and conquests, in the annals of Solomon and 
Hezekiah and Saladin. 

Josephus has called it "a fountain/' and Jerome, 
" fountains " but Scripture calls it a pool, nothing 
more. It is not a well (Mr), nor a pit (bor), nor a 
fountain (ayn), but a pool (berechah) ; a pool such as 
those of Solomon at Bethlehem, only on a smaller scale. 
And as these great pools were filled from a deeper and 
more secret source, so was this of Siloam, in part from 
that which is now called the Well of the Virgin, to 
which we are now to proceed, and into whose history we 
must inquire.* 

temple wells, and of Solomon's aqueduct, found their way into it, so that 
when these sources were stopped it was much diminished. The Jews 
affirm that Gihon and Siloam were the same, meaning, I suppose, that 
Gihon was the original source and Siloam the terminating pool, the waters 
passing down the Tyropseon, " the west side of the city of David," (2 Chron. 
xxxii. 30), from the one place to the other, and so acquiring the name of 
sent. " Hezekiah stopped the upper water-course of Gihon, (literally, "the 
goings out of the waters of Gihon the higher,") and brought them straight 
down (that is, sent them straight down) to the west side of the city of 
David." 

* The reference of Isaiah xii. 3, to Siloam and to the feast of the Taber- 
nacles (John. vii. 37) is too beautiful to be passed by. I give it in Light- 
foot's words — " When the parts of the sacrifice were laid on the altar, 
then was there this pouring out of water upon the altar, but mingled with 



UM-ED-DERAJ. 



165 



Climbing over part of the low ridge of Ophel, and 
ascending the valley of the Kedron a little way, we 
reached " the Fountain of the Virgin/' as it is called by 
the Franks, though by the natives it is named, I be- 
lieve, Ayn Um ed-Deraj, the " Fountain of the Mother 
of Steps/' We drank of the water, and went a little 
way into the spacious cavern which forms the porch 
of this well. An Arab child, from the village of Siloam 
I suppose, was drawing water. We had no lights with 

wine ; and the manner thus ;— one of the priests, with a golden tankard, 
went to the fountain or Pool of Siloam and filled it there with water. He 
returned back again into the court through that which is called the water- 
gate ; and when he came there the trumpets sounded. He goeth up the 
side of the altar where stood two basins, one with wine in it, and into the 
other he put the water ; and he pours either the wine into the water or 
the water into the wine, and then he pours them out by way of libation. 
... At the time of this libation did the music and the song begin ; and 
that song, which they sung all the days of the feast, was Hallel ; that 
being renewed daily as their lulabh or branches were renewed daily. 
When they came to the beginning of the 118th Psalm, ' give thanks 
unto the Lord/ all the company shook their branches. . . Towards 
night they began ' the rejoicing for the drawing of the water ;' which 
mirth they continued far in the night ; and this their rejoicing was of 
so high a jollity, that they say that he that never saw the rejoicing for 
the drawing of water never saw rejoicing all his life. . . . Keraarkable 
is that passage in the Jerusalem Talmud upon this question ; Rabbi Levi 
saith \ Why is the name of it called the drawing of water ] Because of the 
pouring out of the Holy Ghost, according to what is said, with j 03' shall ye 
draw water out of the wells of salvation.' " — Temple Service, p. 182-186. 
The Treatise Succah, in the Mishna, gives full particulars of the cere- 
mony. The closing scene was a splendid illumination, in which four im- 
mense candelabra were chiefly remarkable. " The cast off breeches and 
belts of the priests were torn into shreds for wicks ; there was not a court 
In Jerusalem that was not illuminated by the lights of the water-drawing." 
—Chap. v. 3. 



166 



RISE AND FALL OF SILOAM. 



us, else we might have ventured farther. The whole 
excavation, both the descent and the basin itself, seemed 
artificial. There must have been some original fissure 
or hollow out of which water gushed ; and this was 
carefully improved. The natural well, which was pro- 
bably the outlet to some interior spring, was enlarged, 
and a wide entrance hewn. In order to retain the 
waters and turn them to account, the subterraneous 
canal was hollowed out, by means of which they were 
brought down, or rather through, the ridge of Ophel to 
water the king's gardens, which otherwise could not 
have existed. The w 7 aters could not have been con- 
ducted round the hill, save by a regular aqueduct, 
which would have been a much less enduring, while, 
perhaps, equally costly work. It is not easy to see 
what use such a canal could be to a besieged city. It 
was, no doubt, desirable that the pools should be within 
the wails ; but of what advantage could it be to have a 
secret communication between them ? 

We did not see the sudden rise and fall of this foun- 
tain, or of its daughter Siloam, which have been 
so often described by travellers, ancient and recent. 
Like many intermittent springs, it probably owes its 
flows and ebbs to some natural syphon in the rocks 
through which it passes. That this natural peculiarity 
is ail that is indicated in the evangelist's narrative of 
the angelic " troubling of the waters/' and that the in- 
spired narrator was accommodating himself to a popular 
superstition, is an assumption as gratuitous as it is 



HINNOM WATERED BY SILOAM. 



167 



irreverent.* This peculiarity does not seem to be the 
same as that referred to by Jewish tradition, which 
affirms that Siloam ceased to flow on the Sabbath. So 
far as this tradition corresponds to fact, it merely shews 
that, as on the Sabbaths there was much more water 
needed for the temple service, so much more was arrested 
on its way through the conduits, and that thus very 
little would reach Siloam. 

The great use of Siloam (besides helping to supply the 
neighbourhood) was, as we have said, the watering of that 
part of the base of Ophel and valley of Hinnom, which 
formed the king's gardens. As Egypt owes everything to 
the Nile, so does Gehinnom owe everything to Siloam. 
Without it there would have been there no " paradise" of 
Solomon, nothing but a grey rocky slope. Dry up Siloam, 
and you turn this oasis into a desert, and rob J erusalem 
of one of its greenest, loveliest nooks. Five or six times, 
in different places, does Jerome speak of the valley of 
Hinnom being irrigated by Siloam, and mentions the 
pleasant groves and fruit-trees of which it was the 
parent. Hence the value set upon it, and hence the 

* Dr Robinson suggests the above theory, (vol. iii. p. 249). He also 
asserts that our Lord himself countenanced such accommodations to popu- 
lar prejudice in his parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The natural 
phenomenon of the sudden rise and fall of Siloam must have been well 
known in early days ; for Chrysostom refers to it in one of his homiiies. 
"The apostle speaks of the desert-rock, that that rock was Christ; so 
Siloam had a spiritual character,— the sudden rise of its water being a 
silent figure of Christ's unexpected manifestation in the flesh," {Horn. 57, 
on John). The Greek word here is aQgoog, which seems to indicate the 
sudden rush of the water. The Latin translation gives repentinus. 



168 



SILOAH AND EUPHRATES. 



meaning of the figure used by the prophet, " refusing the 
waters of Siloah." Egypt made a god of the Nile ; 
but Israel slighted Siloam ; they " looked not to the 
maker thereof, neither had respect to him that fashioned 
it long ago," (Isa. xxii. 11). And God uses this as the 
figure of their guilt in despising the predicted Son of 
David. Like the waters of Siloah, the promise of Mes- 
siah had long seemed to flow underground, and to be 
deferred in its coming up to view. Israel would have 
none of this. They would have a king at once, — a king 
like Syria's or Samaria's ; they " refused the waters of 
Siloah that go softly,* and rejoiced in Rezin and Re- 
maliah's Son/' (Isa. viii. 6). And since they would not 
have this pleasant rivulet which so bountifully watered 
their valley, but despised it because it was not a mighty 
stream, "therefore, behold the Lord bringeth up upon 
them (literally over them, like a torrent) the waters of 
the river (Euphrates), strong and many, even the king 
of Assyria and all his glory ; and he shall come UP OVER 
all his channels and go over all his banks ; and he 
shall pass through Judah ; he shall overflow and go 
over ; he shall reach even to the neck, and the stretch- 
ing out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, 
O Immanuel/'" They despised the fertilizing waters of 
Siloam, and they were to have the desolating rush of the 

* It might be rendered "secretly the reference being perhaps partly 
to the underground flow of the waters, not merely between the fountain 
of the Virgin and the pool, but down the Tyropaeon from Gihon, and 
also between the temple wells and the pool. 



GETHSEMANE. 



1(9 



Euphratean torrent, covering the whole land, and sweep- 
ing off, not enriching the soil. 

We then ascended the steps and passed onwards, 
crossing the Kedron by the bridge near the Latin gar- 
den of Gethsemane. Sitting down on the rock where 
the legend says that the disciples fell asleep, with the 
whole of what must have been the ancient garden full 
before us, or rather chiefly at our right hand, we read 
the Gethsemane hymn ; " old and plain/' yet not the 
less suited on that account, to the venerable scene on 
which we were looking. 

o 

Jesus while he dwelt below, 

As divine historians say, 
To a place would often go ; 

Near to Kedron's brook it lay. 
In that place he loved to be, 
And 'twas named Gethsemane. 

The scene seemed to fill each line with new meaning ; 
and the hymn is still rich with the memories of that 
spot and hour.* 

Slowly we climbed the mount of Olives, and in less 
than a quarter of an hour reached Mr Graham's house, 
which is a square tower, half way up the hill. We sat 

* Mr Montgomery has reprinted, but greatly altered, this hymn in his 
"Christian Poet." One of his stanzas goes thus, — 
" Gloomy garden, on thy beds 
Washed hy Kedron's water-pool." 
The old author, who knew that the Kedron has no " water-pool," and is 
made use of to carry off the filth of the city, wrote truer words, — 
,( Gloomy garden, on thy beds 
Washed by Kedron's waters foul," 



170 



ROMANS AT GETHSEMANE, 



first in the second-floor room, looking through the small 
square lattice upon the city which seemed to lie beneath 
us, sloping away upward from Kedron to the tower 
of David. Somewhere on the steep right below us, 
where these olives dot the grey hill, the tenth Eoman 
legion had their camp ; and here the J ews, sallying out 
upon them, fought so terribly, covering Gethsemane 
with Roman corpses, and drenching with the blood of 
war the soil where, forty years before, the great drops of 
blood had fallen from the Son of God.* 

* Two legions encamped or, Scopus ; the tenth, which had come up from 
Jericho, encamped on the mount of Olives. f< Orders were issued to encamp 
at the distance of six furlongs from J erusalem.. at (zara) the mount called 
the mount of Olives, which lies opposite to the city on the east, separated 
by the interposition of a deep valley (pot^ayy/ /Sa^s/a) which is called 
Kedron," (Josephus, J. W., b. ii. 2. 3.) The J ews sallying out at one of the 
eastern gates, rushed across the Kedron, and drove the Eomans up the hill. 
Titus, coming over from Scopus, a few furlongs off, rallied his troops and 
drove the Jews down Olivet. They suffered greatly on the declivity (is 
toj xardiiTSJ KoWa, TLaTLCaQivrsg) ; but no sooner had they got across, 
than, they faced about, and again attacked the Romans, till Titus had to 
withdraw his troops up the hill, and there fortify himself (sic rr t v azsw- 
£S/av). After a little, the Jews rushed forth again, — down across Geth- 
semane, and up Olivet. The Eomans fled before the terrible onset, till 
Titus stood almost alone. With great difficulty rallying his routed 
legions, he fell upon the Jews who were pressing up the hill. Again the 
tide of war turned, and the Jews, fighting every inch, were driven down 
the slope of Olivet into Gethsemane. There they turned once more and 
fought ; but again they were driven down to the hollow. Across the 
Kedron, however, the Eomans did not venture. They kept their ground 
on the slope, and the Jews retired within the city. Such was the battle 
of Gethsemane, at the very commencement of the war which ended in the 
ruin of the city. Strange that the first terrible onset should have been 
in Gethsemane. 



RED HEIFER. 



171 



Somewhere here, also, the red heifer was burnt, 
according to the universal tradition of the Jews. In 
white robes, after a week's preparation, the high priest 
performed this solemn rite.* Leading his victim from 
the temple by the east gate, across a wooden bridge 
constructed for the occasion over the Kedron, lest its feet 
should touch ground where a dead body might be buried, 
or anything unclean might lie, he brought it to Olivet, 
slew it, burnt it, gathered up its ashes, and carried them 
back to be deposited for after uses of purification. 

As the sun got lower, slanting its rays till they came 
down almost parallel with the sloping city, the view 
grew more interesting. We went up to the flat house- 
top to see it on all sides. Down went the sun ; not 
brilliantly, yet with sufficient brightness to light up the 
clouds, and bring out in relief upon the sky, the serrated 
battlements of the western wall, with the castle of 
David rising above the whole, and Mount Zion shewing 
itself as the crowning height of the city. Such a view 
of Jerusalem, and at such an hour, must the Lord have 
often had, when having finished his day's teaching in the 
temple, he came out at yon eastern gate, crossed the 
Kedron where we did, and took perhaps this higher and 
less frequented road to Bethany, not far to our left, 
which steals upwards over the summit of the hill. 

We sat upon the housetop for some time, marking 
the shadows coming over the hill behind us, and watch- 
ing the city, now becoming featureless and indistinct. 

* Braunius de Vestitu, p. 648. 



172 



TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION. 



One by one the lights came out, twinkling here and 
there from its windows, till at length it became invisible 
in the gloom, and could only be known by the few stray 
lights which flitted here and there. Jerusalem had dis- 
appeared, and it was as if we heard the cry of the 
mourner, "How hath Jehovah covered the daughter of 
Zion with a cloud in his anger ! " (Lam. ii. 1). 

We then descended from the housetop, and had tea 
in the room below. Waiting till the moon should rise, 
we were looking out and making ready for a walk, 
when we saw lights outside the walls, near Nebi-Daud, 
moving downward. We went out to see what this 
could be. Slowly the lights advanced, turning the 
south-east angle of the city, and coming down the path 
that leads to the Kedron. As they descended the slope, 
they became most distinct, and we saw that it was a 
long procession, each man bearing a torch. We called 
to mind at once the band " with lantherns and torches/' 
headed by Judas ; for down that very path they must 
have come, on their way to Gethsemane, seeking for 
Jesus. We watched their progress ; but we kept asking 
ourselves, What is it, and where are they going ? Is it 
a Latin pilgrimage to the garden of Gethsemane, — for 
they are now moving in that direction ? They cross the 
Kedron ; but they pass by Gethsemane. It can be no 
monkish procession. Up the hill they move, and amid 
the dark olives their torches are waving. Turning a 
little to the right, they take the way to the Jewish 
burying-ground, above the valley of Jehoshaphat. It 



A JEWISH GRAVE. 



173 



must be a Jewish funeral! We consult Issa (the 
Arabic name for Jesus), Mr Graham's Christian servant, 
and he remembers that a Jew had died the previous 
day. The Jews would not bury on Sabbath, and the 
body could not be kept another day. So ? having got 
permission from the governor to leave the city at night, 
they are carrying their kinsman to the valley of Jehosha- 
phat, where all Jews desire to rest, and are laying 
him in the tombs of his fathers. How true to Jewish 
life seem these passages in the gospels which speak of 
the sick being brought to Jesus " when the sun was 
set/* (Mark i. 32 ; Luke iv. 40). They would not heal 
their sick, nor do even necessary work, till the Sabbath 
was over, preferring sacrifice to mercy, instead of mercy 
to sacrifice. 

We set out in the moonlight across the rough slope 
of Olivet, and soon reached the spot. The procession 
had just halted, and the bier, somewhat like a large 
cradle, with a covering thrown over it, had been set 
down. Two or three men, in their ordinary dresses, 
were lifting out the body, which is wrapped head and 
foot in a white shroud, without a coffin. The grave has 
been dug only a few feet deep, under an olive, whose 
branches spread out above us, as we stood amid the com- 
pany, and threw strange shadows on the ground, as the 
torches flitted about beneath them, and, mingling with 
the moonlight, glimmered through their foliage. There 
was no prayer, no service, and but little solemnity. 
The body was laid in the grave, and immediately large 



174 



GETHSEMANE BY MOONLIGHT. 



stones were placed above it and wedged in firmly on all 
sides, as a protection from the prowling jackals.* The 
grave was then rilled up, and the twenty men and 
boys who formed the funeral procession prepared to 
return. We moved also, musing over the strange scene ; 
a Jewish funeral by torchlight in the valley of Jeho- 
shaphat ! 

Retracing our steps, we walked slowly down the steep, 
and soon found ourselves in Gethsemane, (some two or 
three hundred yards above the Latin garden) beneath 
some old olives, on which the cloudy moon was shining 
fitfully. We found one, not the largest perhaps, but one 
of many stems, and therefore the more likely to be the off- 
spring of the very trees that stood here eighteen hundred 
years ago. On a knot of its projecting roots we sat down 
to fill ourselves with the scene and its memories. Geth- 
semane by moonlight ! Gethsemane just at the time 
of passover, within a few da}^s of the anniversary of the 
agony in the garden ! We knelt and prayed together ; 
then rising up we walked up the steep towards the city 
walk. On a tolerably spacious shelf of rock here, a con- 
siderable way up, some think Golgotha may have been. 
It is said in its general contour to be like a skull. It 
has a tomb cut in the rock, and a cistern which may 
have supplied a garden. The women may have stood 
" afar off beholding/' on the slope of Olivet, It would 
not be unsuitable to think of Gethsemane and Golgotha 

* Is this the origin of cairns 1 Protection from beasts of prey ] Or is 
it to keep the dead in memory ] Or both ? 



A NIGHT ON OLIVET. 



175 



as almost adjoining. But I do not see any special 
reason for thinking this the spot. We stood for a little 
on this rocky shelf, looking up to the city battlements 
on the one side and to the Mount of Olives on the other, 
with the dark shades of Gethsemane between ; then 
again crossing the Kedron we ascended the hill and re- 
turned to the tower, after having spent several hours in 
this moonlight walk. Opening our lattice, we looked 
out upon the sleeping city, where a few lights were still 
glimmering. About half-past eleven we went to bed, 
meaning to be up before sunrise. My chamber did 
not, like that of Peace in "the Interpreter's house/' look 
towards the east. But it looked down on Gethsemane 
and Jerusalem ; and I lay down close beside the win- 
dow, intending that my first view as I awoke should 
be of these sacred spots. The lattice was not wind- 
tight, and there was no glass in its frame, so that 
it flapped occasionally as the breeze came up the hill. 
At home one might have thought of cold, and damp, and 
illness ; but no thought of these crossed me here. The 
sifting wind did not feel unpleasant ; the old walls did 
not seem damp nor cold. Who might have dwelt in 
this tower in past ages, — Jew, Roman, Crusader, Arab, 
I knew not ; nor did I ask. I was lying down to sleep 
on the Mount of Olives, and I expected to awake in the 
morning, my first Sabbath here, with my eyes upon 
Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SABBATH SUNRISE — BETHLEHEM — URTASS — BETHLEHEMITE HAWKERS — 

RAIN MOSQUE ROCK — TEMPLE OF SOLOMON ALTAR THE RABBI 

ECCENTRICITIES THE CONSUL. 

Sabbath, Feb. 24. 1856. — Up long before sunrise to 
watch the first streak of dawn coming down upon the 
city. The morning breaks rather heavily. There is 
no rain ; but the clouds hang thickly over us, and the 
sun is hidden. Yet the olives of Gethsemane are kind- 
ling up, and the old city is coming out distinctly in the 
daylight. Mosque and minaret, church and dome, all 
throwing off their shadows. No stir has begun. Jeru- 
salem is not yet awake. I see but two men down in 
the valley crossing the Kedron. The crowing of a cock 
and the barking of a dog are the only sounds I hear. 
Now a little smoke begins to rise from some houses 
here and there ; how different from the ascending volumes 
of village or city smoke at home ! 

What Sabbath calm ! Yet an hour will dispel it ; for 
Jerusalem has no Sabbaths, and the bustle will soon 
begin.* 

* Even sentimental ism finds congeniality between the place and the 
day ; and would reckon the confusion of the bazaar, the bustle of the 



EOAD TO BETHLEHEM. 



177 



This is my first Sabbath in J erusalem, and to-day my 
people at home are remembering their Lord at his table, 
while I am looking down upon the scene of his great 
agony. I thought on this last night when kneeling 
under the old olive ; I think on it now again. 

About eight we set out for the city, crossing the Ke- 
dron at the usual bridge, and finding our way over the 
shoulder of Moriah and Mount Sion, into the city. 

At half-past nine we set off for Solomon's gardens, 
where I had agreed to conduct service. Mr Meshul- 
lam, a Christian Jew, with his wife and family, live 
there, as I have noticed, cultivating the ground, and 
bringing the produce to the Jerusalem market. The 
clouds had passed into sunshine, and the forenoon, 
though not hot, was yet bright. Going out at the J affa 
gate, and crossing the hollow which lies between what 
are called the upper and lower pools of Gihon, we were 
soon riding quickly over the plain of Rephaim, once 
much richer and greener than now. When passing 
through it, and looking at its wide extent, with its 
scarcely perceptible south-west slope, you naturally call 
it a "plain, as we found ourselves generally doing ; but 
marking the low hills which hem it in on all sides, you 
see that it is really a valley, and understand the accu- 
racy of the Scripture name, which is always valley, not 

streets, the noise of riotous children, rather out of place here on the day 
of rest. The Mahommedan has his Friday, the Jew his Saturday, and 
the Christian his Sunday. How the Jew clings to his Sabbath ! Parents 
and children are taught to revere and love it. 

M 



178 



BITTIR, 



plain; an emeh, a wide depression between hills, such 
as " the vale of Hebron/' and the " valley of Ajalon." 

We did not dismount to look into " the well of the 
wise men/' which lay right in our way,* and hardly 
bestowed a glance upon the flat rock to our right, at 
Mar Ellas, to see the mould of Elijah's body.-f- But 
we did look to the distant right with some interest, to 
see the hill of Bittir, not because of its conjectural con- 
nection w T ith the Bether of the last great slaughter of 
the Jews under Barchochebas (a.d. 135), but because 
possibly it might be the place referred to by Solomon : — 

Turn, my beloved, 
And be like a roe, 
Or a young hart, 

Upon the mountains of Bether." (Cant. ii. 17.) 

We pass Er-Bam on the left, and Rachel's sepul- 
chre on the right, J which last the Jews visit, once a 

* The Romish Church has made kings of these wise men, but without 
evidence. See Trench's " Star of the Wise Men," p. 12. 

t The old Ihnerarium Antonini Placentini (about the middle of the 
sixth century) does not mention Mar Elyas ; but it mentions a well "good 
and plentiful," three miles from Bethlehem, "in via media," where Mary 
sat down with the child. 

X If this Er-Ram be the true Ramah of Jer. xxxi. 15, then its proxi- 
mity to Rachel's sepulchre renders the reference to it in Matt. ii. 18 very 
natural. It was certainly in the coasts of Bethlehem, where the other 
Ramahs are not. At the same time, it is not so easy to see why Rachel 
should be said to mourn over the children in Ramah, except generally as 
a mother in Israel. The original reference by Jeremiah was to the capti- 
vity, which fell so heavily on Benjamin. Rachel's cause of sorrow is 
easily seen ; but the application, by Matthew, of this to the children of 
Judah is not so obvious. Yet the border of Benjamin might have come 
near Bethlehem. Mr Trench speaks of the nearness of Rachel's grave to 



BETHLEHEM. 



179 



month, to pray there, before the full moon. Beit-Jala 
hangs nobly on the heights above, with its magnificent 
olive-forest. But we passed on. The Shepherds' Plain 
soon came into view, with the village of Pastora on the 
height,* hard by Bethlehem, which now shone out in 
its quiet splendour, f Entering Bethlehem, we visited 
Dr Sandretzki's school and congregation. There were 

Ramah (meaning Ramah of Benjamin, five miles north of Jerusalem) ; 
but even though, it were nearer than it is, the difficulty that occurs is, 
what had the northern Ramah to do with the slaughter of the children of 
Bethlehem 1 — Trench's "Star in the East," p. 107. Jerome speaks of 
Ramah as being "juxta Bethlehem;'' while in his Comment, on Jer. 
xxxi., he gives us an interesting piece of information in connection with 
Rachel and her sepulchre. He tells us that not only had Rachel to weep 
over the captivity in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and over their 
slaughter under Herod, but also iff the days of Vespasian and Hadrian ; 
for he says that the captive Jews were led southward to Gaza and Alex- 
andria past Rachel's tomb, —an . innumerable multitude of all ages, to be 
sold "in mercato terebinthi," which I suppose means a market held 
uuder Abraham's oak at Hebron. The children of Abraham sold into 
captivity under Abraham's tree ! 

* Pastora, of course, takes its name from the shepherds to whom the 
angel appeared, (Luke ii. 8). This may be mere tradition ; but the vil- 
lage may probably be the Migdol-Edar, the "tower of Edar," where 
Jacob encamped after setting up Rachel's pillar, (Gen. xxxv. 21). He 
was on his way to Hebron, and his first stage after his sore bereavement 
was but a short one. Edar means flock ; and Jerome tells us that this 
"tower of the flock" was about a mile from Bethlehem, and was the 
place of the shepherds. The Jews make the "tower of the flock" to 
mean the "temple," where Israel assembled as a flock; and the name in 
Micah iv. 8 seems to refer to some place about Jerusalem. See Jeromes 
"Questiones in Genesim ;" also De Sola's Notes in his edition of " The 
Pentateuch," p. 226, and Jervis's " Genesis Elucidated," p. 462. 

f "Bethlehem est locus splenclidissimus," says Antoninus, in his 
Itinerary. Half a mile from it he mentions David's tomb. He speaks of 
the monastery as containing " multitudinem monaehcrum/ 



180 ETAN. 

seventeen children present ; but Dr S. told us that 
there were upwards of thirty throughout the week. A 
native Bethlehemite teaches the school, and besides the 
children, there are ten native adult worshippers in the 
congregation. It was pleasant to kneel down, at the 
close of the service, with the Christian worshippers in 
Bethlehem, even though their petitions were presented 
in a tongue which we could not understand. They 
smiled and shook hands with us very cordially. What 
a fine-looking race these Bethlehemites are, — men, 
women, and children ! The European blood which the 
Crusaders left behind them here flows still in their 
veins.* 

Leaving Bethlehem by a very rugged road, we soon 
reached Urtass, or El-Tos. Descending the steep side 
of what is called Wacly Etdn (the Etam of 2 Chron. 
xi. 6, and of J osephus), we soon arrived (about twelve 
o'clock) at Meshullam's house, which is at the bottom of 
the valley, looking out upon the gardens. The congre- 

* I was four times in Bethlehem ; and as I came and went, the words 
of the old Spanish hymn often came into mind : — 

" While to Bethlehem we are going, 

Tell me, Bias, to cheer the road, 
Tell me why this lovely infant 

Quitted his divine abode ? 
From that world, to bring to this 
Peace, which of all earthly blisses 
Is the brightest, purest bliss. 

The references to Bethlehem, to the wise men, the shepherds, and the 
star, in the old Latin hymns, are very numerous. See " Mone s Hymni 
Latini," vol. i. pp. 39, 41, 56, 62, 68, 72, &c. Most of these are poor, and 
not worth quoting. 



THE GARDEN. 



181 



gation was soon assembled, consisting of himself, his 
wife and children. The last had their catechism and 
chapters all ready for us ; and the little company joined 
devoutly in the service, and listened to the message 
spoken. While Mrs Meshullam was preparing dinner, 
Mr. M., Mr Graham, and myself, wandered out into the 
garden, which stretches up and down the valley for 
seme distance, watered by a fountain of its own,* not by 
Solomon's pools, which carry all their treasure past it 
into Bethlehem or the mosque at Jerusalem. Many of 
the fruit-trees were in blossom ; others were budding ; 
all looked fresh with spring-life. The hillside shone 
bright with the cyclamen, and anemone, and marigold, 
in all their many colours ; and it seemed as if some 
rainbow had fallen to pieces on the slope, and strewn 
its fragments over the rocks. 

The waters of the spring were finding their way 
through every part of the garden, " visiting each plant/' 
and sending up the sap through the veins of the pome- 
granate, the quince, the fig, the almond, whose varied 
branches formed a glade, which when April has called 
out the full leaf, must be delicious in shade and beauty. 
Even now, in February, how exquisite the scene, and 
how richly oriental !-f* 

* This fountain seems pure and abundant. But the gardens need more 
than this; and when we were there Meshullam was longing for rain. The 
following year, I believe he got more rain than he desired : it swept down 
his crops ; flooded away his turnips to be the prey of the Aiabs; and, 
forming an under-ground reservoir, burst up into his house. 

t On the 24th of July 1856, this valley was the scene of an interesting 
gathering, of which a full account is given in the Jerusalem Miscellany for 



182 



SONG OF SOLOMON. 



" The winter is past! 
The rain is over and gone ; 
The flowers appear on the earth ; 
The time of song is come, 

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 

The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, 

The vines with the tender grape yield their fragrance, 

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." (Cant. ii. 11-13).* 

We left about four, returning to Jerusalem by the 
same way in which we had come in the morning. Still 
there was a wondrous difference, such a difference as 
evening makes upon the landscape and upon the spirits. 
We repassed Bethlehem, fairer now than ever. We 
looked down on the Shepherds' Plain, as green and 
calm as before. We looked up to the heights of Beit- 
Jalah, whose olives, quivering in the cool breeze, turned 
up the silver lining of their dark green leaves, and 

November 1856. It was meant as a brotherly testimonial to Mr Graham, 
whose kindnesses to the Jews of Palestine, both spiritually and tem- 
porally, have won for him the cordial confidence of the converts. Along 
with the Hebrew Christians of J erusalem, there were Mr Rogers, British 
Consul at Kaiffa, Mr Nicolayson, Mr Hefler, and others — about thirty 
persons in all. I give an extract in the Index, under Urtass, as it de- 
scribes the summer beauty of these gardens. 

* Mr Nicolayson, speaking of the Song of Solomon, gives an interesting 
account of a conversation which he had respecting that book with one who 
had lived and travelled in the east, and was versed in Arabic literature. 
From the knowledge he had acquired of Arab songs and other poetry, 
a3 used in their most solemn worship, by dervishes and olemas, he had no 
doubt that Canticles was a religious song, setting forth the object of wor- 
ship, with the feelings supposed to subsist between God and his wor- 
shippers. There are, it seems, numerous Moslem songs in constant use 
in Moslem assemblies for worship, quite of a kindred nature to the Song 
of Solomon. 



BETHLEHEMITE HAWKERS. 



shaking them in the sunshine, produced a singularly 
beautiful appearance, in the alternation of green and 
silver. When we came within two miles of J erusalem 
we took a curve to our right, to vary our route, by rid- 
ing along the low heights on the east. This gave us 
quite a new view of the city. The valley of the Kedron 
entirely disappeared. The hills seemed to dip from 
north to south. Mount Zion seemed but a lower range 
or continuation of Scopus ; and Jerusalem itself looked 
as if lying on a slope of that northern height — " the 
sides of the north/' 

We went for an hour to Mr Nicolayson's, in whose 
company it was at all times pleasant to be ; then, after 
preaching in the school-room, I returned to the hotel, 
musing over the scenes and events of my first Sabbath 
in Jerusalem. 

Monday, Feb. 25, 1856. — Went out a little aftei 
seven, for a walk about Jerusalem. Met a Bethlehemite 
Christian selling goods of various kinds, chiefly beads 
and ornaments of olive wood, or ink bottles and the like 
of the bituminous stone from the Dead Sea. These are 
sold largely to travellers ; but still more largely to pil- 
grims. Bethlehem seems the chief place of manufac- 
tory for these articles of wood and stone, as Hebron is 
for its rings and bracelets of glass. These " travelling 
merchants " frequent Jerusalem, and never fail to be- 
stow a few friendly calls on European travellers. But 
their chief places of business are the porticoes of their 
churches. Under the long colonnade by which we 



184 



THE GREAT MOSQUE. 



entered the Bethlehem convent, we found them ; and 
at whatever time we passed the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre, we found these Bethlehem and Hebron 
" hawkers/' squatted in front of the large double-arched 
gateway. 

I went up the slope to the west, and wandered over 
the ground for an hour. Returned, and went to break- 
fast with the French Consul. In the afternoon I went 
to Mr Nicolayson's, and after a little we set out for a 
walk. We took a north-west direction. Within a mile 
from the Jaffa gate we observed large stones, which 
might have been the foundations of the ancient city 
wall. We noticed also here a pool and a tomb. We 
meant to have made further examination as to the 
ancient walls of the city ; but rain drove us back to our 
quarters. 

Tuesday, Feb. 26. — Went about seven with Mr 
Graham and Dr Fraser, from the Crimea, to the house of 
the Pasha's Secretary, by whom we were admitted into 
the "Mosque of Omar/' or Kubbet es-Sakhra, and al- 
lowed to visit every part of the enclosure, or Haram, be- 
low ground as well as above.* The first thing that struck 

* The rigid exclusion of all but Moslems from the mosque is well known. 
I was therefore the more favoured in entering it twice and twice returning 
safe from it. Felix Fabri mentions that many Christians in his day (a.d. 
1483) found ways of entrance (multi Christiani so periculo dant et modos 
excogitant, &c). He tells us that, though rather given to sight-seeing, 
(quamvis ego ipse libenter nova et curiosa videam), he never tried to 
enter ; and he warns others against the attempt, giving them reasons to 
Bhew the sin of it, at great length, and also assuring them that they see 



THE PAVEMENT. 



185 



me in passing over the area, was its pavement A largo 
portion of this is the solid rock ; the hill of Moriah hav 
ing been levelled by Solomon to form a sufficient area. 
Here, then, was the bare rock, as Solomon's " hewers" and 
" stone squarers " (1 Kings v. 18) had left it. The feet of 
kings and priests had been here. Over this pavement 
the Son of God had walked. It was this pavement 
that was drenched with Jewish blood in the last hour 
of their temple, as for ages before it had been sprinkled 
with the blood of their sacrifices. It was this pavement 
that had been wet alternately with the blood of the 
Saracen and Christian ; and over all this area had been 
the piled up carcasses of the slain. It was this pave- 
ment that Saladin had sprinkled with rose-water, to 
purify it, and the mosque in its centre, from the pollu- 
tion of Christian feet and Christian blood. And this is 
the pavement which, from that day to this, now more 
than six centuries, has been trodden only by Moslem 
feet ! We passed in to the mosque, taking off our shoes, 
and putting on slippers, which we had brought with us 
for the purpose. An Arab lad constituted himself the 
bearer of our shoes, and followed us throughout.* The 

from without all that is worth seeing, for within there are no altars nor 
pictures nor images ; nothing but a plain but ample building. (Evagato- 
rium, vol, ii. p. 224. 225.) Besides the two parties mentioned by Dr Ro- 
binson as having got in (in 1818 and 1833), the Jesuit traveller, Eugene 
Roger, entered it in 1645 by a stratagem which he declines mentioning, 
and gives us two or three pages of description, with a plan. La Terre 
Sancte, &c , pp. 90-95. 

* Jewish tradition as to the shoes is the same as Moslem. "No man is to 
go on the mountain of the temple with his stick, his shoes, or with his purse, 



186 



TnS KUBBET OH DOME. 



outside of the great mosque looks faded, in some places 
rather shabby, yet not anywhere ruinous. It is finely, 
almost gaudily ornamented all round ; while over all 
its doors, as well as at other intervals, verses of the 
Koran in large Arabic characters look down upon you. 
What they were we did not ask. Possibly they might 
be utterances of the prophet threatening death to us 
for entering the sanctuary. The inside is less faded and 
very gorgeous, from the floor up to the centre of the 
dome. One would suppose that the dome, and the whole 
circle on which it rests, was one vast hemisphere of 
stained glass. It seemed a collection of rainbows, 
braided into one bright tissue, and belted round at the 
base by a rainbow brighter than all the rest. The 
effect of this when the sunlight of noon is pouring in, 
must be brilliant in the extreme ; for even though the 
morning was cloudy w T hen we were there, the result of 
the transparencies was very splendid. No less so must 
it be at night when lighted up for festival by a thousand 
lamps. Islamism, it would seem, needs the " dim re- 
ligious light " for its worship. How unlike the ancient 

nor yet with dust-covered feet, nor is be to make it a thoroughfare (taking 
a short cut through it to some place beyond) ; much less is he permitted 
to spit thereon. " Mishna. Treatise Berachoth, chap. ix. 5. The poor 
Arab shoe-bearer reminded us of Matthew iii. 11, and John i. 27, in three 
points : — (1) He loosed and tied our shoe latchets. (2 ) He carried our 
shoes. (3.) He came after us. And is not this last point specially 
referred to in John's comparison ] ' Though He cometh after me, yet is 
He preferred before me ; though I am first in time, yet I am not worthy 
to follow Him as his shoe-bearer." 




I 



THE BOCK Oil SAKHRAH. 



187 



service on this mount ; when Jehovah's altar stood out 
a covering under the broad sunlight ; no roof, 
no Qome, no grove darkening the full day, or making 
men oelieve that the worship of the living God is not 
a service of gladness, and liberty, an.d filial fellowship. 

But it was not the brilliant dome, nor the well-adorned 
walls, nor the noble colonnade, that interested us chiefly. 
It was the immense mass of unhewn rock rising up in 
the centre that fixed our eye. Some five feet above 
the floor on which we were standing, surrounded with a 
rail or screen of wood, high enough to keep off sacrile- 
gious intruders, yet not high enough to hinder our see- 
ing it fully, (round and round, as well as over the top of 
its rugged surface), there it lay, the old top of Moriah, grey 
and bare ! * I would fain have got within the screen to 
examine it more closely, but that honour is reserved for 
Moslem saints of the highest standing. I had to con- 

* See Catherwood in Bartlett, p. 177. It is called by Moslem writers 
the "consecrated rock,'' (Jalal Adadm's Hist, of the Temple, (p. ii.); 
"the rock of the Holy One/' (ib. p. ix.) ; " the rock of the Holy House, (ib. 
p. 7) ; the " middle of the world,*' (ib. p. 14) ; the " first part of the earth 
that was created," (p. 19). " Here, says the same writer, is the chapel 
of the Holy Rock, near to Soha, and the dawning light of the morning 
brightens in the heaven of its holiness," (p. xiv.) " The most beloved of 
all mountains is that whereon stands the Sakhrah," (p. 21). It is made of 
Jacynth (p. 21), and from it the four streams of Paradise issue forth (p. 
22). David stood on it (p. 31), and saw the angels descending on a golden 
ladder resting on the rock (p. 32). Solomon stood on it, sacrificing and 
offering the consecration prayer of the Temple (p. 38). In his days its 
he ; ght was 12,000 cubits ! (p. 44). It was the Kiblah of the patriarchs, 
(p. 1U6). It was the place on which the ark was placed, and towards which 
Israel prayed, (p. 103). 



188 



THE FRACTURE. 



tent myself with looking at it in ail directions, and 
thrusting my hand through the narrow interstices ot 
the railing to feel it.* It is forty feet broad by sixty 
long, and stands in all seventeen feet above the external 
area. Solomon must thus have cut away the hill to a 
depth of seventeen feet in order to obtain the area ior 
building the temple ; and then, as this was not sufficient, 
he must have raised the side-slopes of the hill, in order 
to bring up the ground to a level with the rocky area 
thus secured by the levelling of the seventeen feet. 

The one end of this great mass is cut away, and bears 
the traces of this quite distinctly, not only in the marks 
of the tools, but in the peculiar cut or fracture of the 
rockt Though perhaps this excision may not date farther 
back than the era of the Crusaders (the Mahommedans 
ascribed it to the Christians), J yet the difference of 
colour between the cut and the uncut portion of the 
stone is very remarkable. Of course the surface of the 

* This screen is called " a splendid covering of net- work" by Jalal-eddin, 
p. 247- " The Franks had cut off a piece from the Sakhrah and carried 
it to Constantinople. A piece was transported to the country of the Slevi 
(Russians), who bought it for its weight in gold," (p. 249). He calls the 
repairing of this fracture the " healing the wounds of Islamism, " p. 255). 
I may notice here that this Moslem writer calls Christians " people of the 
Book " (p. 112), anticipating the charge of " Bibliolatry " advanced 
against some in later days. 

f See Mr Catherwood's account in Bartlett's Walks round Jerusalem, 
p. 167. 

X " Before the capture (of the Sakhrah by the Christians) no cutting nor 
severed portion had been externally visible ; but the infidel people have 
left somewhat of this sort behind it." Jalal Addin. p. 247. 



TOP OF MORIAH. 



189 



rock is not level. Its inequalities are considerable, yet 
looking across it, one would say that, upon the whole, it 
was tolerably level, and must have formed a consider- 
able circle for the top of the old hill. 

What is this rock?* It must have been preserved 
for some special reason when all around was levelled. 
It could not be for ornament, for a rough block like 
this would be an eyesore, quite a disfigurement to the 
spacious level platform. The fact, too, of its being so 
carefully preserved to this day, shews that not only the 
original levellers, but all subsequent repairers of the 
temple or mosque, must have had a reason for sparing 
it. Had an unsightly block been left in the midst of 
St Paul's, under the dome, every visitor would ask this 
as his first question, how came this here, and what led 
the architect to spare it when excavating or levelling 
all around ? If Herod's temple were on the same spot 
(however enlarged) as Zerubbabers, and Zerubbabers 
on the same spot as Solomon's, as most certainly they 
were, then the careful preservation of the stone must be 
traced back to Solomon. What reason had Solomon 
for sparing the rock ? Not simply because it was the 
time-honoured top of Moriah. It must have been for 
some more special reason ; and the only reason which we 
can conjecture is that it was the thrashing-floor of 

* The Mahommedan traveller tnus answers the question, " In the 
middle you see the noble rock mentioned in tradition, from which the 
prophet ascended to heaven. It is a very hard rock about six feet high.' - ' 
— Ibn BatuiaKs Voyages, K,T>. 1326. 



190 araunah's thrashing-floor, 

Araunah the Jebusite, where David his father had 
offered sacrifice. The circumstances mentioned m Scrip- 
ture respecting this transaction are worth noticing. (1.) 
The spot where the sword of judgment staid was this 
thrashing-floor ; " the angel of the Lord was by the 
thrashing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite," (2 Sam. xxiv. 
16). (2.) Gad's message to David from the Lord was 
as follows, " Go up, rear an altar unto the Lord in the 
thrashing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite," (ib. 18). (3.) 
David's purchase of the spot ; " so David bought the 
thrashing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver."* 
(4.) David's sacrifice ; " David built there an altar unto 
the Lord, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offer- 
ings/' (ib. 25) ; " David built there an altar unto the 
Lord, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, 
and called upon the Lord, and he answered him by fire 
upon the altar of burnt-offering," (1 Chron. xxi. 26). 
(5.) David's prophetic announcement. After he had 
sacrificed on the thrashing-floor (1 Chron. xxi. 30), he 
spoke to the assembled people, " Then David said, this 
is the house of the Lord God, and this is the ALTAR 
OF BURNT-OFFERING FOR ISRAEL," (1 Chron. xxii. 1). 
Thus he solemnly fixed the site of the altar and an- 
nounced it to Israel ; and he did this, not by any pri- 
vate impulse, but by divine dictation, for it was David, 

* In this above passage it is said that David gave fifty shekels of silver. 
By 1 Chron. xxi. 25 it is said that he gave five hundred shekels of gold. 
The explanation of which seems to be that the thrashing-floor cost the 
smaller sum, and the whole hill round about the larger. Bochart's la- 
boured solution is too strained to be admissible. 



THE ALTAR. 



191 



though Solomon was the builder of the temple, that re- 
ceived the plan and pattern, as Moses did of the taber- 
nacle, directly from God, " All this the Lord made me 
understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all 
the works of this pattern/' (1 Chron. xxviii. 19). (6.) 
Solomon's carrying out of this design. " Then Solomon 
began to build the house of the Lord at Jeruslem in 
Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his 
father ; IN THE PLACE THAT DAVID HAD PREPARED, IN 
THE THRASHING-FLOOR OF ORNAN THE JEBUSITE," (2 
Chron. iii. 1). (7.) The descent of the fire at the dedication 
of the temple. " When Solomon had made an end of 
praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed 
the burnt-offering and fhe sacrifice/' (2 Chron. vii. 1). 
These passages very clearly imply that the thrashing- 
floor of Araunah was to be set apart for God, from that 
day, to be the great centre or pivot round which all 
Israel's worship was to turn in future days. " This 
is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel." 

Of these facts Josephus makes full mention also, 
adding, that " this thrashing-floor was the very spot on 
which Isaac was laid by Abraham."* I might cite 
Maimonides and Abarbanel to the same effect ; only 
they spoil their testimony by telling us that, not only 
was this the spot to which Abraham brought Isaac, 
but the place on which Noah built his altar on his exit 
from the arkf In the traditions of later days, both 

* Antiq. vii. 13, 14. 

f Lightfoot's Centuria Chorographica, p. 57. Cramer's Dissertatio ae 



192 TOE ALTAR ACCORDING TO THE RABBIES. 

Christian and Moslem, regarding the sacred rock, it is 
curious to find mention made of the fire from heaven, 
having come down upon it to burn up the sacrifice.* 

The Rabbies do not mention the rock, so far as I can 
discover, but they insist uniformly that the " brazen 
altar " was made of stone, and that it was called the 
brazen altar simply because that was its name in the 
tabernacle, from Moses to David t They assume that 
the words of Moses were a commandment, and not a 
mere permission. J They are very explicit in maintain- 
ing that the stones were to be unhewn. No tool was 
to be permitted to touch them, and they were to be dug 
from places where no hand of man had been. 

The question is not one which can be settled by 
measurements. The rock is a little broader than the 
altar was, and considerably longer ; but then the bare 
rock itself need not have been the altar, nay, could not 
have been, as the following passage from the first book 
of Maccabees shews : — " When they consulted what to 
do with the altar of burnt-offerings, which was pro- 
faned, they thought it best to pull it down, lest it should 
be a reproach to them, because the heathen had defiled 
it. Wherefore they pulled it down, and laid up the 

Templi secundi Ara exteriore, (1696) chap. i. § 5. This latter quarto is 
the fullest and most valuable book on the subject that I have seen. 
* Fabri's Evagatorium, vol. ii. p. 221. 

f Cramer (de Ara, chap, ii.) quotes Kimchi and other Rabbies to the 
above effect. The Jews say that there were three stone altars, one at Nob, 
another at Gibeon, and the third in the Temple. 

X See Exod. xx. 25 ; Beut. xxvii. 5 ; Jo3h. viii. 31. 



THE ROCK THE ALTAR- BASE. 



193 



stones in the mountain of the temple, in a convenient 
place. . . Then they took whole stones and built a new 
altar according to the former/'* The altar had a large 
base; then at a height of one cubit, it receded and left 
a ledge for the priests to walk round, and then there 
was another contraction towards the top ; so that, from 
base to top, it was ten cubits high, (2 Chron. iv. 1). 
The sloping ascent, and the various appendages on the 
different sides, would require very considerable space, 
so that in these respects there need not be much diffi- 
culty in believing the Sakhrah to be the altar-base, The 
singular cavity or chamber under the rock accords also 
with this conjecture. As the Jews are very explicit 
and unanimous on this point, there is probably truth in 
their tradition. One says, " the foundations of the altar 
are hollow and very deep/'f This cavity was called 
Shit, as another writer informs us : — " By Shittim are 
meant the perforations through which the wine poured 
out flows down into a place under ground which is 
called Shit/' I This " subterraneous cavity/' as one of 
them calls it, was said to be not artificial, but natural. 
" It was made among the works of the six days of crea- 
tion/' This great cavity was not for receiving the 
blood, or offal of any kind. It was solely for the liba- 
mina, the drink-offerings. The blood was conveyed 
away at once by pipes of lead, or clay, or brass (for all 

* 1 Mace, iv. 44, 47 ; Jos. Ant. xii. 7, 6. See also Drusii, Annot. in loc, 
+ Bartenora, quoted by Cramer De Ara, iv. 3. 
£ Maimonides, cited by same. 



19-i ROCK POLLUTED BY THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 



these are mentioned), down the hill, under the founda- 
tions of the temple, to the Kedron.* This pipe or small 
conduit was called Siun;f and, according to the 
Jews, must have been at the south or south-east side 
of the altar, where the remainder of the blood not 
used in sprinkling, was to be poured out. J The Kub- 
bet-es-Sakhrah lies north and south, and it is under its 
eastern or south-eastern end that the cavity, or " noble 
cave/' as the Moslems call it, is situated ; so that the 
receptacle for the blood, and that for the libations, were 
quite separate. 

There is another interesting fact in connection with 
these remarks. Arabian annalists tell us that when 
Omar first got possession of Jerusalem, about the be- 
ginning of the seventh century, he set about planning 
a mosque, on the site of Solomon's temple. He was 
shewn, as the spot, the great rock. This, it would 
seem, was at this time lying in neglect, heaped over 
with refuse and filth, in contempt of the Jews, towards 
whom the Christians of these centuries, both in the 

* It may be this to which Benjamin of Tudela refers :— " You see to 
this day vestiges of the canal, near which the sacrifices were slaughtered 
in ancient times, and all Jews inscribe their name upon an adjacent wall." 
— Itinerary, Asher's edition, p. 71. Jalal-Addin records a tradition con- 
nected with this : — " Upon the Sakhrah of the Baitu-l-Mukaddas there 
shall be a great sewer." — Hist, of Temple, p. 179. 

T Maimonides ad Mikvath, iv. 3. See Cramer, whose own words are 
worth quoting : — " Viden' in eo sanguinem a libatis separari, quod ille in 
Kidron, haec in Schittim abeant ] Prseterea caverna Schit longe profun- 
dissima et ad abyssum usque producta." 

£ " Cruorem superstitem in crepidinem effundere debuemnt et quidem 
in auetralem, quoniam hunc a dextra habuerunt."— Cramer, ib. 



OMAR AND THE HOCK. 



195 



east and west, appear to have cherished no feelings, 
save those of malicious hatred, — hatred all the more 
evil and unworthy, because professedly founded upon 
reverence for Him whom Israel had crucified. Omar, 
it is said, soon restored the rock to its better state,* 
and built his mosque, the fairest and the largest of the 
fourteen hundred which, admirers say, he erected during 
his khalifate. The story may or may not be true ; but 
the men who gave it forth must have believed that the 
rock was the site of the Jewish altar, and that it had 
been considered so by the Christians who possessed the 
place. For we know from frequent incidents in Jewish 
histor^v, that when conquerors, such as Antiochus, 

* The Christians in early centuries (Greeks, it is said at another time), 
it would seem, had not only covered it with filth but turned the cavity 
into a public cesspool, (Jalal Addin, p. 177). Omar having entered 
the city, said : — "0 Abu-Ishak make me to know the place of the 
rock. Then he said, measure out one cubit on each side of the wall which 
is nearest to the valley of Hinnom ; then dig, and thou shalt find it. 
Thus said he. Now that place was at that time a public cesspool. Then 
he dug, and the Sakhrah became manifest," (lb.) He proceeded to clear 
the filth. Musk, amber, and rose-water made the incense for purifying, 
which was carried about in censers of gold and silver, and aloes-wood of 
Kimar. Streams of water were poured over it. It would seem that, from 
this part of the story, there was no building over it before the Mahomme- 
dans got the city ; but of a later time it is said : — " The Franks had built 
achurchupon it, and had never ceased to lift up their hands in blessing it. 
. . . They adorned it with images and candlesticks, and had dedicated 
therein a place for monks. ... A little chapel on the place where Christ 
set his foot. . . The Sakhra was hidden from the passenger, being covered 
over by the buildings on it. The Sultan removed the covering ; he 
brought home this bride with pomp ; he caused this pearl to come forth 
from the shell."' This was after the crusades.— (p. 246). 



196 



TRADITIONS. 



wished to insult the Jews and profane their temple, it 
was the altar that they fixed upon as the place of 
scorn.* Whether Omar found the rock thus defiled 
by Christian hands, may perhaps be questioned ; but 
the tradition to that effect is sufficient to shew what 
the rock was supposed to be.-f- 

•IMacc. i., 59; iv. 38, 44, 45. 

+ The traditions are somewhat confused, from the numerous events 
said to be connected with the rock. The " Jerusalem Itinerary" speaks 
of a "lapis pertusus," which the Jews visit annually. This they anoint, 
lamenting and rending their garments. This stone he mentions in con- 
nection with the building which stands on the site of Solomon's temple, 
so that it would appear that the rock was not within the walls of the 
church, as, in that case, the Jews would not have had access to it. Per- 
haps it was when driven out of this place of wailing by the erection of the 
mosque, that they betook themselves to the present one outside the 
Haram. 

Saewulf (a.d. 1102), after viewing the rock of the holy sepulchre, 
goes to the " temple of the Lord, two arbalist shots to the east of the 
holy sepulchre." There he sees " the large and high rock, hollowed be- 
neath, in which was the Holy of Holies/' Maundeville (a.d. 1322) says : 
— "About one hundred and sixty paces from the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre is the temple of the Lord. . . . The Saracens will not suffer any 
Christian or Jew to come in ; but I went in there, and in other places 
where I would, because I had letters of the Sultan. This temple is sixty- 
four cubits wide, and as many in length, and within it has pillars of 
marble all round ; and in the middle of the temple are many high stages, 
fourteen steps high, with good pillars all about ; and this place the Jews 
call the Holy of Holies. ... On the other side of the temple there is a 
rock, which men call Moriah, where the ark of God, with relics of Jews, 
was wont to be put." Fabri (a.d. 1482) gives us the tradition of his day, 
making this the rock on which the priests placed " the holocaust," and 
telling us that it was here Jeremiah, at the destruction of the city and 
temple, hid the ark. Sir R. Guylford's chaplain (a.d. 1506) says : — " They 
(Saracens) worship there a rok of stone, whiche is closyd aboute with 
yron ... In the same rok the Jews kept the ark of God, with the relics 



THE UNDER-CHAMBER. 



197 



Into the cavity we now descended by a short flight of 
steps at the south-east corner. The steps seem cut out 
in the rock. They looked smooth and whitish ; though 
indeed there was not very much light to shew us what 
they w r ere. The chamber looked sufficiently ample for 
a cave on the top of a hill ;* and it goes quite under the 
great rock, which forms a complete and tolerably level 
roof ; suspended there, w^e are told, by the hand of Ma- 
homet, though to us it looked tolerably firm in its 
adhesion to the sides of the chamber, of which it evi- 
dently formed a solid part, not requiring the pro- 
phet's aid at all.f We saw here one or two marble 
fragments, not unlike the capitals of some great pillars 
whose shafts had disappeared. They were standing on 
the ground in a corner, not above three feet in height, 
beautifully adorned with spiral work, which, in several 
double or triple plies of cord-work, went round them. 
They reminded us of Solomon's "wreathen work and 
of the " short pillars with ten spirals round them " de- 
scribed by Josephus.j These were no doubt Jewish, 

that Titus carry ed to Home." Though some of these traditions speak of 
the ark of the covenant as being hidden under this rock, and of the whole 
temple as the Holy of Holies, yet the almost uniform idea seems to be, 
that the rock was the site of the altar of burnt-offering. 

* "It is irregular in form, and its superficial area is about six hundred 
feet, the average height seven feet." Catherwood's Letter, in Bartlett's 
Walks about Jerusalem, p. 167. 

»f "The rock stands by itself ; for that God raised it up who supporteth 
the seasons, and the sun's course without columns." (Jalal-Addin's Hist, 
of the Temple — Introduction, p. 14.) 

X Antiq. viii. 3, 5. Though he is describing brass, not marble pillars, 
in this place, still the likeness of design is not the less striking. 



198 



THE BIR ARUACH. 



and probably belonged to the Temple's earliest age ; 
though what they were it is not easy to say. They 
were fragments of some pillar, or porch, or gateway ; 
ornaments which some of David's or Solomon's masons 
had hewn and polished.* 

When walking about and surveying all parts of the 
cavity, our Moslem guide, a tall massive fellow with a 
prodigious tarboosh, and a staff eight or ten feet long, 
stopped in the centre of the chamber, turned up the 
matting on the floor, and struck a circular piece of 
marble with the end of his rod, at the same time call- 
ing our attention to the peculiar ring or echo which the 
stroke produced. He meant us to understand that 
there was a hollow beneath, or, as he called it, Bir, — a 
well or shaft. Here was the Bir Arudeh, the well of 
souls !•(- I asked if we might not be allowed to descend 
and see what was there. No, that was not permitted. 
I do not know whether we should have seen much, but 
one would have liked to make the trial, for Christian 
tradition speaks of some of the temple vessels as hid- 
den here, and Jewish tradition affirms that some- 
where under the floor of the Haram, the tables of the 
law lie concealed, so that when the Jews were lately 
asked by the Pasha to join in a public procession to pray 
for rain in a time of great drought, they refused lest they 
should trample on their law ! 

* 2 Kings xii. 12 ; 1 Chron. xxii. 2. 

+ Is the Moslem name a remnant of Jewish tradition, originating in 
the fact that somewhere here the blood was poured down ? For " the blood 
is the life "or soul. 



EL AKSA. 



199 



Our guide soon led us up out of this strange chamber, 
and hurried us to another part of the enclosure. He 
was unlike most of the Mahommedans we had met with 
either in Egypt or Syria in one respect, that he seemed 
in great haste, hardly giving us time to look at the diffe- 
rent objects which he pointed out. Whether he thought 
that a single glance was the utmost that could be al- 
lowed to the unbelievers, and that more would pollute 
the place ; or whether he were afraid that the hour of 
service was coming on, and that it would not be safe 
for us to encounter the worshippers, especially the Abys- 
synian guard, I do not know ; but he did try to push 
us on hastily. He did not succeed, however, so well as 
he wished, for we persisted in seeing fully all that was 
to be seen. He was a good-natured man notwithstand- 
ing, and seemed somewhat amused when I took from 
him his long staff of office to try its length and weight. 

We next proceeded to the mosque El Ahsa ; which 
lies south from the great mosque, about a hundred yards, 
close by the southern wall of the temple. Here the 
cypresses, shooting up out of the very midst of the area, 
and everywhere surrounded by the white limestone of 
walls, pavement, arcades, and minarets, form such strik- 
ing objects in all directions, specially from the Mount 
of Olives.* Their tall dark-green spires look beautiful, 
in contrast with the glittering marble around. This 

* Are these cypresses and other trees which are to be found here, a part 
of the fulfilment of Mic. iii. 12, and Jer. ix. 11, " the mountain of the 
house shall become as the high places of the forest V 



200 



Solomon's substructures. 



mosque is by no means so splendid as its northern neigh- 
bour, either inside or outside. But it is more venerable. 
We went carefully through all its parts, examining its 
pillars and aisles. In all its parts, both in plan and de- 
tail, it looked not unlike a Christian church, which it is 
really supposed to have been. Adjoining its south-west 
is the mosque of Abu-Bekr ; and at the east side is a 
very small mosque, said to be the true mosque of Omar. 
We were led down some steps into a sort of small clois- 
ter, where a small marble trough was pointed out to us 
as a most sacred object, " the cradle (some say the tomb) 
of our Lord Issa/' that is of the Lord J esus Christ, It 
was painful thus unexpectedly, in a Moslem mosque, to 
stumble upon some of the Latin and Greek mockeries, 
which at Bethlehem had seemed so offensive. 

We then went down to the vast substructures which 
lie at the south-east angle of the Haram close by El- 
Aksa, the foundations for the platform of the temple 
area. They strike you in a moment as singularly mas- 
sive and strong. Strength alone ; — not beauty nor 
grace has been consulted here. Not that there is any- 
thing out of taste in that interminable vista of arches, 
but it is its solidity that impresses you from first to 
last. Nowhere, I suppose, is there anything like it ; 
and as we moved slowly down the slope of the hill, and 
felt the arches increasing in height and massiveness as 
we advanced, we seemed to be wandering: through the 
rock-cut crypt of some vast Egyptian temple. It looked 
more as if the hill had been excavated into these cells 



TEMPLE-PLATFORM. 



201 



rather than that these cells had been built upon the 
hill. The cost and labour must have been great ; and 
the engineering skill which they indicate is much be- 
yond what modern ideas are inclined to allow to 
ancient science. The level platform which they pro- 
duced above, forms a large addition to the ancient hill, 
whose summit, as it stood originally, must have been 
narrow, and quite unsuited for any building beyond that 
of a tomb. This fact thoroughly supports the statements 
of Josephus and the Rabbis, that these substructures 
were, in part at least, the work of Solomon, perhaps 
begun by David. Had it not been that Millo is spoken 
of in connection with Sion, not Moriah, we might have 
fancied from the name that here was Millo, the " filling 
up/' as the name implies. Herod may have made ad- 
ditions, and so enlarged the area above ; Simon the son 
of Onias also may have made others ;* but the inner 

* Ecclesiasticus, 1. 1. " Simon, the high priest, the son of Onias, re- 
paired the house again, and fortified the temple by him was founded the 
height of the double porch (supplying crrdag) and the high fortification 
(avoCkri[JjfJjCc) of the circuit of the temple." The word avaXrifX/xa 
signifies something lifted up, and is applied to terraces and hanging 
gardens. It is the word used by Josephus for the substructures of the 
temple (Antiq. xv. 11. 5), and it is the word used by the septuagint as 
the translation of Millo in 2 Chron. xxxii. 5., to avaArj/Jb/Aa r^g koXsojc, 
Aavid. The fullest statement (critical and historical) as to these sub- 
structures is to be found in Lamy's elaborate folio, "De Tabernaculo, do 
S. Civitate, et de Templo," pp. 751-760. He shows also that these 
immense cavities were used for various purposes, "innumeraa cryptse, 
apothecai, lavacrae, stagnae, cloacae," (p. 359). I suspect that it was here 
Benjamin of Tudela saw the stables of Solomon, which he says formed 
part of the temple (1 Kings iv. 26) ; for he speaks of the immense stones 



202 



SUBTERRANEOUS ARCADE. 



parts of these under-erections must have been the work 
of Solomon himself. As you first enter, you think you 
might touch the roof with your hand ; for they cannot be 
more than nine or ten feet high ; but as you move down 
the long slope, you seem to be receding from the roof, 
till at the extremity you find that it must be about 
thirty feet above you. I would fain have climbed up, 
and looked out into the valley from a pretty large aper- 
ture in the wall, but it was too high to attempt, I 
tried to penetrate into an adjoining recess ; but after 
scrambling some way over rubbish and rough blocks of 
the fallen stone, I had to return, as the darkness made it 
somewhat perilous, and there was, so far as I could 
judge, nothing to be seen. Some one talked of a well 
here, but it did not seem a likely place for one. The 
arch under which we stood was a very noble one, and 
the pillars very massive. As we walked down the slope, 
an aperture in the right wall was pointed out, which is 
said to be the mouth of a passage communicating with 
mount Zion. The use of such a secret passage is not 
very apparent : but it may have existed. 

It is said that at the upper part of this long aisle, 
some olive trees have struck through their roots ; and 
this has been urged in proof of the insolidity as well as 
modern date of the structure. I did not see the roots ; 
but I suppose the fact is as has been stated. It seems, 
however, to afford no ground for the above conclusions. 

employed in this structure, "the like of which are nowhere else to be 
met with," (vol. I. p 71). 



IMMENSE STONES. 



203 



The roof may, in the course of ages, have given way in 
some places, but what building is there in the world that 
has been tested as this has been, by age, by neglect, by 
assault, by the fierce hand of the destroyer ? 

Wherever we looked we saw the same massiveness, 
in wall or arch or pillar. There appeared to be no small 
stones in any part. These were inadmissible in such a 
structure. We measured the stones in the right hand wall 
as w r e went down, and found them to average a length of 
fifteen feet by a depth of eight. As at the present day, 
so in former ages, stones of the finest limestone rock 
were to be had in abundance, and just at hand. For 
cedars Solomon must send to Lebanon, for firs to some of 
the Syrian mountains, for shittim-wood to the desert, for 
copper to Wady Magharah or Surabit-el-Khadem, for 
gold and silver to the farthest south ; but for stone he 
did not need to go a mile beyond Jerusalem. It lay all 
around and beneath. 

We now r remounted the slope, under the mighty 
arches, which seemed to descend on us as we advanced, 
and soon found ourselves upon the open area of the 
Haram, proceeding towards the golden gate, which lies 
a considerable way along the eastern wall. The outside 
of this we have often seen, when looking down from the 
Mount of Olives upon the city, or passing along the 
eastern slope of the Kedron. It forms a notable object, 
even to the careless observer, as it projects several feet 
from the wall and rises to a considerable height above 
it. It is now quite built up, but must have been at 



204 



GOLDEN GATE. 



one time a splendid double-arched gateway. That this 
is Roman, not Jewish, is more easily affirmed than 
proved. The style of architecture is not decisive either 
way ; but one can hardly conceive of Adrian being at 
the cost of such a splendid gateway, as its interior, even 
more than its exterior, proves it to have been.* It is 
with the interior that we are now concerned. 

We soon found ourselves within the pillars of the 
noble gateway. It is really fine, and I should say that 
Mr Catherwood's drawing of it does bare justice to it ; 
not because of any inaccuracy, as because it is impos- 
sible in a drawing to give an idea of the spacious w r hole. 
We had to descend some steps in order to reach it ; for 
it lies a good many feet below the level of the area. 
The stone is, of course, the usual limestone of which 
everything here is built. In several parts, especially at 
the joinings of the stones, there has been considerable 
disintegration going on. Indeed, in all its parts, it 
presents a much more wasted aspect than the substruc- 
tural pillars and arches which sve had been seeing ; so 
much so that you would be led, by a casual survey, to 
conclude the latter, the less ancient of the two. Greatei 

* Mr Catherwood, speaking of the southern gateway under the El- 
Aksa, says : — " This gateway is apparently of the same age and style as 
the golden gate." See letter in Bartlett's Works, p. 170. Now, of the 
former. Dr Robinson says : — " There can be little question that this is 
the ancient gate mentioned by Josephus in the middle of the southern 
side of the temple urea.'' — Vol. i. p. 305. If, then, in spite of some 
Roman indications, the El Aksa gate be traced back to Herod, why may 
not the golden gate be ascribed to the same era ) 



MONOLITHS. 



205 



exposure to weather, as well as rude usage from be- 
siegers, may have worn its stones away, and been the 
cause of the fractured aspect which, in some parts, it 
presents. Its stones are all of them massive, quite as 
much so as those in the vaults of El-Aksa, or in the 
exterior of the south-eastern angle of the wall. Two 
splendid monoliths struck us, one standing out in the 
centre, the other imbedded in the corner of the wall. 
The former was a column, whose height I could not 
measure, and am unwilling to guess. It was not pure 
Corinthian, though, at first sight, it looked very like it. 
It seemed a mixture of Corinthian and Ionic, though 
with more of the former than of the latter about it. Its 
capital was very massive, but a good deal wasted, its 
floral ornaments having lost all their sharpness. The 
latter monolith was square, but of equal height, and of 
greater thickness. Antiquity, stateliness, splendour, 
suggested themselves to us as our eye went from angle 
to angle, from pillar to pilaster, from roof to floor. 

We picked up a few fragments from the base of the 
pillar, part of which was broken. Our Arab shoe- 
bearer, seeing our desire to possess these, and being, no 
doubt, desirous of a piastre, took up a large stone lying 
on the floor, and began to break off some pieces for us. 
Our guide, however, interfered and forbade him ; for as 
the portico is used as a Moslem place of prayer, the 
stones are, I suppose, accounted sacred. The boy, however, 
had no fear nor reverence for the Mullah ; so, as soon as 
the guide's back was turned, he resumed his efforts, and 



206 



WELLS AND PAVEMENT. 



Drought us a fresh fragment from the base of the square 
monolith. 

We now came up to full daylight once more, and 
wandered for a little upon the level platform, in which 
the only thing that interested us was the wells. We 
sat down on the edge and looked into one of them, 
dropping stones to ascertain its depth. It did appear 
deep ; but we could see nothing. They seemed to be 
merely reservoirs for the rain water, not springs. The 
Eabbis speak specially of three wells within the pre- 
cincts of the temple, — the well Gola, the large well, and 
the cold well. Very possibly those which we saw were 
these ; but we need not try to guess.* 

How slippery the smooth pavement of the temple 
must often have been, either with the rain or with the 
drippings of blood ! For we noticed that exposure to 
the air hardens the outer coat of the limestone, and the 
continual treading polishes it. We found this in all 
the exterior stairs of houses, and in the paved streets of 
the city. The sloping ascent to the altar, formed 
doubtless of this same limestone rock, would soon ac- 
quire quite a marble polish, and in time of rain, or 
when blood fell on it, must have been very slippery and 
dangerous. Hence the frequent reference to the pre- 
cautions against slipping, in the Rabbinical traditions. 

* "They may strew salt on the stairs, that they slip not down ; also 
draw water from the well Gola, and from the Large Well, with the rolling 
wheel, on the Sabbath, and from the Cold Well on festivals." — Michna, 
Treatise Erulin, ch. 10, 14. 



AFRICAN GUARD OF THE MOSQUE. 207 

Salt was kept in large quantities for this purpose, and 
pavement as well as stairs were sprinkled w T ith it. It 
is said that this salt was from the Dead Sea, and was 
called the "salt of Sodom/' the "salt that kept no 
Sabbath/' being continually in the process of ejection 
from the never-resting waters of the lake. 

We then retraced our steps out of the precincts of the 
mosque, walking over the same bare flat rock as when 
we entered, — Solomon's old levellings. No evil befell 
us from Moslem indignation ; no insults were received, 
nor stones cast at us. Indeed we saw very few people 
in any part of the enclosure. Had any of the African 
guards crossed our path, we might not have fared so 
well. But they were somewhere else, — locked up, some 
said, lest their fanaticism should break loose upon the 
profane intruder. But possibly gold had cooled their 
zeal ; for they are well paid for their forbearance. The 
alliance of England with Turkey against Russia has 
done something towards smoothing down, if not eradi- 
cating, hatred of the Giaour. But gold does the most. 
We had to pay one napoleon each for our admission ; 
and as a considerable number have of late been ad- 
mitted, these black defenders of the faith have learned 
how profitable it is to say nothing, but quietly submit 
to the locking op. 

In the course of the forenoon, Mr Crawford .kindly 
came to conduct us to the chief Rabbi of the Sephar- 
dim Jews. To Mr C. and his brother missionaries, we 
are deeply indebted on this and many other occasions. 



208 



MISSIONARY WORK. 



We enjoyed their society as Christian men, and ad- 
mired their zeal for Israel, while we availed ourselves of 
their knowledge of men and places, in order to see and 
hear all that might be seen and heard in Jerusalem. 
Though missionary success here, in labour for the Jews, 
is, as elsewhere, not great, yet they do not labour in 
vain. It is but " the remnant of Israel" that is now 
gathering ; for the day is not come when " all Israel 
shall be saved/' (Rom. xi. 26) ; and this "remnant" in 
Jerusalem, these men of God, are gathering in faith and 
patience. They avail themselves of every method to 
reach the Jews. Having free access to them, with no 
bar but Jewish prejudice, they converse with them 
singly or in groups by the way ; they see them in their 
houses ; they meet them in their synagogues ; not 
only letting slip no opportunity of usefulness, but seek- 
ing out opportunities continually. One part of their 
operations interested me much. Throughout the J ewish 
quarter, large handbills, in Hebrew, are posted up upon 
walls and doors, containing passages from the pro- 
phets, and questions for Jews to ponder. As you went 
down to the bazaars, you might see a J ew standing at 
one of these reading it ; a group of Jews hard by con- 
versing over it. In many such ways do the missionaries 
approach the Jews of Jerusalem, kindly yet boldly. 
Many inquiries have been the result, and some conver- 
sions to the faith and love of Christ. 

With Mr Crawford we set out for the house of a 
rather peculiar being, by name Cresson, who was to in- 



A FANATIC. 



209 



troduce us to the Rabbi. He is an American, and was 
once professedly a Christian. But he has renounced 
Christianity, embraced Judaism, parted with his Ame- 
rican wife, and married a Jewess. He is, as might 
be expected, more Jewish than the Jews, and does 
all he can, like Elymas of old (Acts xiii. 8) to 
hinder the gospel, and thwart the missionaries. We 
had hardly seated ourselves in Cresson's house, when 
he began to praise the Jews in the most extravagant 
manner, giving us to know that with them were all 
religion, morality, and wisdom. I reminded him of the 
charges which their prophets bring against them ; he 
kindled up, and affirmed that all these things were long 
past. I called his attention to the fact, that many of 
these prophecies related to the latter day, and that they 
intimated that Israel would grow worse and worse, until 
" the Redeemer came to Sion." He got fiercer still ; 
and denied that there were any such prophecies. Seve- 
ral other things of similar bearing, and with similar 
explosions on his part, were spoken. At last he blazed 
up into utter fury, and I thought he would have struck 
us, if he durst, in his zeal for Judaism. He rose, how- 
ever, at length, to fulfil his promise of conducting us to 
the Rabbi's house. As we were going out I took occa- 
sion to reprove him for his furious demeanour and hasty 
words, telling him that he was giving us a very bad 
specimen of a Jew. A reproof from a Christian was 
beyond sufferance ; so, gesticulating with both arms, as 
if he would have pushed me to the ends of the earth, 



210 



THE RABBI. 



he exclaimed at the pitch of his voice, " Away with your 
Christianity and your Presbyterianism.'" This outburst 
seemed to empty him, for he was tolerably quiet as he 
guided us along, and said almost nothing in the Rabbi's 
house. 

The Rabbi lived not far off ; so we were soon seated 
on his divan. We could not get directly upon the sub- 
ject of Messiah, or sacrifice, or sin-bearing through the 
blood, as we had done with the Karaite Rabbi ; but he 
was most friendly and conversable. Of course we could 
only converse through an interpreter, as he spoke a pe- 
culiar kind of Spanish, which requires some practice 
to understand. Mr Crawford interpreted for us. He 
brightened up when he heard that we had been at 
Sinai, and made some remarks on Israel's history in 
connection with that mountain, to which we responded. 
As he was likely to know all the traditions of his nation, 
great and small, I was anxious to learn whether he had 
any knowledge of the written rocks of the desert. But 
he had not so much as heard of Wady Mukatteb and 
its inscriptions. Neither he nor his nation know any- 
thing about them. Now, as the Jew lets slip no part 
of his nation's history, enshrining every jot and tittle of 
it, either in histories or legends, it is incredible that this 
Sephardim Rabbi should not have heard of these desert 
writings, were they the relics of his fathers, and the re- 
cords of their miraculous story. If it is answered that he 
might be an ignorant man, the answer is that ignorant 



A HERMIT. 



211 



as Jewish Rabbies may be as to all Gentile history, they 
are never ignorant of their own ; and that besides, his 
professed ignorance of the rocks is quite in harmony 
with the utter silence of Targum, Talmud, Mishna, and 
every Jewish work of tradition or history. What a 
niche would these inscriptions have occupied in Rab- 
binical story, had they ever been known to the J ews as 
the works of their fathers ! 

In the afternoon we called for a Mr Johnston, a 
peculiar individual, but very different from Cresson. 
He is connected with the south of Scotland, as he told 
us, though he was born in England. In the "Narrative 
of Mission to the Jews" (p. 146) he is described as 
living in complete retirement, and waiting for the 
coming of the Son of Man. Nearly eighteen years 
have elapsed since this statement was made, and it 
truly describes the man to this hour ; only that he is 
more of a hermit than ever. He never leaves his house, 
and hardly sees any one. We had some difficulty in 
finding entrance to him. Several times had we to 
knock with force at his rude outer door, well barred 
and chained. At length he came down the dozen steps 
that lead in to the court, and opened the gate. As 
he knew Mr Crawford he received us kindly, though 
his manner did seem to imply that he would rather be 
left alone. He wants to be both Christian and J ew. He 
wears the long side-ringlets of the latter as well as their 
dress, conforming himself in general to their customs. 



212 



THE CONSUL. 



But he will not give up Jesus of Nazareth. He applied 
to the Jews to be received as a proselyte, and satisfied 
them on most points. But when asked to renounce 
Christ he drew back. And at this point he resolutely 
stands, anxious to be a J ew, yet resolved not to deny the 
Lord, whom he seems really to know and love. He does 
no active work, but spends his days in meditation and 
prayer. I asked him why he did not do some work for 
Christ. He said he was waiting upon the Lord. I said 
that he might wait on the Lord, and yet work for the 
Lord. No, he said, he must wait on the Lord to know 
what the Lord would have him to do, and he justified 
himself by the example of Moses, who was commanded 
to spend forty years in Horeb, doing nothing. And 
thus he has been waiting for upwards of twenty years. 
A most guileless man, — quiet and kindly, — with a 
pleasant benevolence in his face and eye, yet strangely 
blind to present duty, and misled by a fanaticism into 
which minds of his passive make are not unapt to fall. 

The rain, which fell constantly all day long, kept us 
within doors, or at least within the city walls, hindering 
a projected ramble to-day, as it had done yesterday. 
The evening we spent most agreeably at the house of 
the Consul, Mr Finn, whose Christian kindness and 
hospitality were always at our service. The interest 
which he and his lady have taken, both in the temporal 
and spiritual welfare of Israel, has won them the confi- 
dence of the Jews, both converted and unconverted. 



Britain's representatives. 



213 



The knowledge of the interest which Britain takes in 
the Jews, saves them from many a wrong which would 
be done them, without remorse, by Moslem, Latin, and 
Greek. No concern have these creeds ever taken about 
the sons of Abraham, save to persecute and spoil ; so 
that the old Rabbies used to make it a question, whether 
it were worse to live under Edom or Ishmael. 

Had the representative of England been indifferent 
to the cause of Israel, and had he exhibited any sym- 
pathy, however distant, with High Church veneration 
for the old idolatries either of the Latin or Greek 
apostasy, it might have been much worse for the Jew, 
and the missionary, and the cause of Protestantism in 
Jerusalem. In the good providence of God, we have 
three excellent men as Consuls, or Vice-Consuls, in 
Palestine, — Mr Finn, at J erusalem ; Mr Rogers, at 
Khaiffa ; and Dr Kayat, at Jaffa. They represent well 
the Evangelical Protestantism of Great Britain. 



CHAPTER IX. 



RAIN AND WANT OF RAIN — MOSQUE REVISITED MORNING WALK— 

BIRKET ES-SULTAN BIR EYUB — EXCURSION HILLS OF ASHES 

TOMBS OF THE JUDGES SCOPUS OLIVET BETHANY MR 

NICOLATSON EIRKET EL-MAMILLA JEREMIAH S GROTTO — ACRA 

CONSUL'S OLIVE PLANTATION — LITERARY SOCIETY VISIT TO 

ADULLAM MEETING OF JEWS — GETHSEMANE JEHOSHAPHAT 

NEBI SEMWIL EL- JIB. 

Jerusalem, Wednesday, Feb. 27. — Still the rain pours, 
so that I got no ramble this morning. The inhabitants 
greatly rejoice in these showers, though we may grumble. 
But still " the latter rain " has not come ; and all are 
eagerly desiring it, for, if it does not come soon, a poor 
harvest is feared. The rain that has been falling these 
two days is much too scanty to be called the latter rain, 
though this is its season. The cisterns are still unfilled, 
and the Kedron is dry. The day of festival at the over- 
flow of Bir Eyub must be postponed. How depen- 
dent is Pales ti. le on the showers of heaven ! It has 
no Nile to overflow, and few fountains to give forth 
their perennial waters. 

In the afternoon, I availed myself of another oppor- 
tunity of visiting the mosque. A large party was go- 



Jerusalem's heaps. 



215 



ing, and I was not unwilling to form one of their num 
ber. I need not re-describe the scenes and sites ; but 
the revisiting was of great use in enabling me to ex- 
amine the different parts more minutely. It helped also, 
of course, to engrave the whole more deeply upon the 
memory. It was even more interesting than that of the 
previous day, though I saw nothing which I had not then 
seen. 

Jerusalem, Thursday, Feb. 28. — Went out to walk 
a little after seven. The morning was cloudy, but the 
rain was " over and gone." As I wished to see the re- 
sult of two days' rain, I went to the Birket es-Sultan 
(King's pool), or Lower Pool of Gihon, as it is called, at 
which you cross the upper part of the valley, below 
Nebi Daud. The pool is not remarkable, save for its 
size, which is considerable. Whether the name " royal 
pool " be a relic of Solomon and Hezekiah, or a mere 
Mahommedan designation, I do not know. There was no 
water in any part of it. Passing over the bridge, or 
bank, with its low parapet and outstanding gateway in 
the centre, at the right, I looked for water, but there 
was none. I then proceeded farther down the valley, 
but all was dry. On my way down, I marked the masses 
of rubbish upon the slopes of Zion, out of which the olives 
seemed springing. It is impossible to guess at the depth 
of the debris, which covers every part of the hill, though 
it does not seem rolled down into the valley.* These 

* The stones of Samaria are quite different. They have been " rolled 
down into the valley," (Mic. i. 6). So that the "foundations are dis- 



216 



AKELDAMA AND JBIR EYUB. 



are the heaps in which Jerusalem has been laid, ac- 
cording to the word of the Lord, (Psa. lxxix. 1 ; Jer. 
ix. 11). 

I examined again the rocks, at the foot of the valley, 
below Akeldama. They do not form quite an unbroken 
precipice. There are hollows, grassy hollows, indent- 
ing its surface here and there ; and the surface of these 
is in some places considerably moist, as if some tiny 
rill were trickling down. On the sides of one of these, 
I gathered some moss, a rare thing in the east. It was, 
however, nothing but common British moss. Yet it did 
not on that account look the less beautful. 

I reached Bir Eyub, a twenty minutes walk from the 
Jaffa gate, at which I had come out. I peered in 
and about, in all directions, climbing in at the broken 
gateway, and looking in by its small peaked arches that 
seem like windows of a castle ; but the rain had as yet 
made no difference, save that there was a little water in 
an adjacent pool or hollow. There were no symptoms of 
the well's overflow. From it I went farther down the 
valley, admiring the freshness of the ever-green olives that 
sprinkled it. If fully cultivated and planted, how beau- 
tiful would this hollow be ; quite the Taset-el-Kuds, the 
cup of J erusalem, at least the green bottom of that cup, 
of which the king's paradise forms the flowery sides. 
After a little I turned back and walked up the bed 
of the Kedron, towards the Kefr Selwdn (the village 

covered f whereas the heaps of Jerusalem remain upon the hill, and 
the foundations are hidden ; being buried under the rubbish. 



MISS cooper's institution. 



217 



of Siloam). The first part of the bed of the brook was 
strewed with rubbish and stones ; then there was bare 
rock, which rose up into a perpendicular wall some few 
feet high. On my left were the king's gardens, with 
their soil already dry, though here and there, there 
were traces of the rain. The bed of the brook was 
wholly unmoistened. 

In the forenoon we went to Miss Cooper's training 
institution for Jewesses, with which we were very highly 
pleased. It was one of the most interesting institu- 
tions we had seen in Jerusalem. We visited all the 
different departments, sewing, knitting, spinning, &c, 
and greatly liked the aspect of the workers as well as 
of the school, if we may call it so. It is well-planned 
and well-conducted ; and though its main object is in- 
dustrial, it is not the less missionary in its aim, the 
Bible being read during the time of work. By means 
of this, Jewesses are trained to be good wives and 
mothers, good daughters and sisters ; while they are 
brought into daily contact with the Word of truth, as 
well as with living Christianity. It claims the warm 
support of British Christians.* 

In the afternoon we set out for an excursion with Mr 
Nicolayson. Leaving by the Jaffa gate we took a north- 
westerly direction, and soon found ourselves at the Hills 
of Ashes.-f- We rode round them, and we rode over 

* See the Jerusalem Miscellany for November 1856, p. 80. 
t I visited these mounds four or five times, examining them in all direc- 
tions. Mr Bailey, subsequently, had the kindness to measure them for 



218 



MOUNDS OF ASHES. 



them, examining them on all sides. They are three in 
number, the highest of which may be upwards of thirty 
feet high, the others less than half that height. ; They 
spread out widely on all sides, and cover a considerable 
breadth of ground. On the surface they are of a dull 
grey colour, earthy in their appearance, and beaten hard 
by the weather. It is said that no verdure is known to 
grow upon them. Under the surface they are whiter 
in colour, not unlike common ashes of wood or coal. 
They are not in layers or strata ; but seem as if caked 
into lumps, some of which are as small as a sparrow's 
egg, while others are as large as the egg of an ordinary 
fowl. These lumps are made up of small roundish no- 
dules, not larger than turnip seeds, most of which con- 
tain as a nucleus a very small atom of charcoal, hardly 
perceptible, save with a magnifying glass. The present 
is evidently not the natural state of the mass, but is 
the result apparently of fire and water ; and is precisely 
what would be produced by a block or blocks of lime- 
stone having been subjected to intense disintegrating 
heat, and then rained upon for years. Suppose one of 
the great towers of the city had stood here, that it had 
been set on fire, and after having been subjected to in- 
tense heat, had crumbled down so as to become a mass 
of burnt debris ; that instead of the ruins being removed, 

me. The first is about 130 yards long, 10 broad, and 10 high. The second 
is about 60 yards long, 60 broad, and from 25 to 30 in height. The third 
is a very small one. In Tobler's map they are marked as "Schutt- 
hiigel," rubb5sh-hill. 



WHAT ARE THEY ? 



219 



or the tower rebuilt, the whole were allowed to remain 
untouched by ought save wind and rain, there would 
be presented just such a mound or mounds as we see 
in these hills of ashes. That they are the remains of 
any of the celebrated towers, I do not say ; but there is 
nothing to prevent this being the case, as the third wall 
seems to have extended much farther than some would 
have it do, and could not be far off, to say no more, 
from these mounds. 

But until regular excavation take place, and a broad 
trench be driven through them, we are not in circum- 
stances to determine the question of their formation. 
We can dig up a handful or two of ashes, as I did, 
bring them home, and analyse them, and thus far 
learn the composition of the mass as it stands at pre- 
sent. But this analysis is only one step towards the 
answer of the interesting question, what are these 
mounds, and how came they here ? 

They are not likely to be soapers' ashes. There is no 
evidence of any extensive soap-works being carried on 
in Jerusalem ; * and even though they were, these 
mounds are far too large to have been formed by their 
refuse. Our largest British manufactories, such as 
Liverpool, Runcorn, London, Glasgow, Leith, would not 
accumulate such hills in the course of many years, and 
each of these manufactures at least a thousand times 
more of the article than J erusalem ever did. Soapers' 

* There have been soap-works in Jerusalem in past times. At present 
there are six of these. 



220 



ARE THEY TEMPLE ASHES ? 



ashes are very light and impalpable, sure to be blown 
about by wind and washed away by rain. Dr Robin- 
son's statement as to the Nablus mounds is too general 
to be founded on. It may turn out that they are really 
different from those at J erusalem. They have not been 
measured, nor examined, nor analysed. 

As to their being the ashes from the altar of the 
temple, there is a difficulty. Not that the distance is 
really in itself too great, as Dr Robinson suggests.* 
They are little more than a quarter of a mile from the 
Damascus gate ; and measuring by the scale in Tobler's 
map of Jerusalem, they are just six Roman stadia, or 
three quarters of a mile, from the north-western angle 
of the temple wall. The distance w T ould not be of so 
much consequence, were there not nearer places for 
their deposit, places where the temple refuse was 
usually carried. 

But, first, there is a difficulty as to the composition 
of these mounds. There is no proof, from analysis, 
that they are the remains of animal matter. I brought 
home a sufficient quantity of them in a bag, and have 
had them carefully analysed by my friend Dr Richard- 

* Vol. iii. p. 202 "'A single historical circumstance would seem to 
put the matter at rest. Froni the time of Solomon to the Christian era, 
the city was bounded by the second wall ; and it is quite improbable that 
the ashes of the altar would have been daily carried forth so far beyond 
that wall, as the distance of the present mounds from the Damascus gate." 
The force of this reasoning is not aj parent. The fact stated as to the 
second wall does not set the matter at rest Three quarters of a mile was 
no great distance for " the hewers of wood and drawers of water" to carry 
heavier burdens than the altar ashes. 



ANALYSIS. 



221 



son of Newcastle, whose analysis corresponds very much 
with that made in Liebig's laboratory. I put the 
sample into his hands without mentioning any of the 
theories afloat as to the origin of the mounds. In giv- 
ing me the analysis,* he thus writes : — " This is the 
composition of ordinary magnesian limestone. In the 
interior of several of the small round masses or concre- 
tions, fragments of charcoal may be observed, which 
appear to have served as a nucleus in their formation. 
The presence of these fragments of charcoal, and the 
general appearance of the sample, would suggest that it 
is not an ordinary geological deposit, but rather the 
produce of water charged with carbonic acid, percolat- 
ing through a mass of burnt lime/' On receiving the 
above, I wrote, mentioning the theories as to the origin 
of the heaps. Dr Richardson replied : — " The mounds 
of ashes may have been the refuse of a soapery, which 
is chiefly carbonate of lime ; but I incline to our previ- 
ously expressed opinion, that they have resulted from 
the action of rain-water or burnt limestone. Chemi- 
cally, there is not a trace of evidence to shew that they 
could have been the ashes of the sacrifices/' Of 
course, this is but negative proof ; proof which is per- 
haps weakened by the certainty that ages of rain may 
have washed thoroughly out the phosphoric acid, which 
would have, with certainty, indicated an animal origin ; 
proof which may be thought to be neutralized by the 

* See Index, Ashes. 



222 



NEARNESS TO THE THIRD WALL. 



discovery of pieces of burnt Lone. - * But still it is of 
importance to keep in mind that chemistry has failed 
to detect the one substance which would have proved 
them the remains of bone and flesh. 

Again, they are much too near the third wall of the 
city, to have been allowed to remain as they are. Be- 
lieving, as I do, that this wall must have come out 
quite in this direction, I cannot think that such refuse 
would have been permitted to be thrown out so near to 
it. To Solomon's time, of course, this does not apply ; 
but to the later days of the temple it does. If the wall 

* See letter in Athenceum of May 5. 1853, as to the result of a visit to 
the Hill of Ashes in 1852 : — " Digging both at the top and near the base 
of the largest heap, I was struck with the fact that the whole seemed 
homogeneous, there being no earth, stones, pottery, or rubbish of other 
kind, mixed with the grey -blue mould. This seemed unfavourable to the 
popular idea of their being formed from soap-boilers' ashes. Continuing 
to dig, I was soon greatly interested to find among the ashes (which ap- 
peared to me to be animal, though I never had them analysed) small 'por- 
tions of bone, strengthening my belief that I was surrounded by the 
remains of the burnt-offerings of Israel during a thousand years. But the 
proof appeared to amount to demonstration, when I discovered, a foot or 
more from the surface, fragments of lone, sufficiently large to leave no 
doubt of the animal to which they belonged. I have in my possession a 
number of specimens, among which is one three inches long, evi- 
dently the leg-bone of a sheep or lamb ; another, a fragment of the skull 
or nose-bone ; and two others, fragments of ribs, which it seems impos- 
sible to mistake for any other but the same an"mal. The first mentioned 
of these specimens has been charred or blackened by the action of fire." 
The writer then remarks that this discovery may throw light on Jer. xxxi. 
40, " The valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes?' He supposes that 
the hollow which would anciently exist between the wall and the Hill of 
Ashes, was this " Valley cf Ashes." though the ruins have now filled up 
the hollo'.v. 



UNLIKELIHOODS. 



223 



took a line quite through this spot, then, of course, any 
mounds then existing would have been swept away. 
Or if it even ran within a hundred yards of this spot, 
such unsightly masses would not have been allowed to 
remain. But especially the siege of Jerusalem must 
have levelled all such heaps. Not for a day would the 
J ews have allowed such eminences to continue, affording 
shelter to the besiegers, and foundations on which to 
erect their towers. Or if the Jew spared them because 
they were temple ashes, would Titus not have used 
them in his approaches to the city ? If so, could they 
present the conical forms which now they do, and would 
not the erection of his enormous towers have reduced 
them to a very different shape ? I need not, however, 
speak of one siege of Jerusalem? How often, from the 
days of Rehoboam downwards, has Jerusalem been be- 
sieged ! And it is hardly conceivable that such sieges 
as Jerusalem has borne, — sieges in number and terrible- 
ness like those of no other city the world has ever 
known, — should have left these heaps untouched ; that 
wall, tower, and battlement should have disappeared, 
and yet that these mounds of temple ashes should have 
remained unlevelled and untouched ! 

Again, we know that, up till the time of the siege by 
Titus, Jerusalem was fringed with gardens, extending 
a considerable way to the west and north of its walls. 
How far these gardens extended we do not know ; but 
they must have gone much farther than these mounds 
of ashes ; and it is not easy to believe that the refuse 



224 



ALTAR ASHES. 



even of the temple would have been deposited here ; 
or, if it had been so in earlier times when the city was 
smaller, that it should have been allowed to remain in 
the midst of the splendid gardens and erections that 
beautified this spot. 

Jewish tradition does not help us here, though it fre- 
quently mentions the removal of the altar-ashes. This 
was done every morning just at dawn ; on the three 
great festivals, sooner ; and on the day of atonement the 
work was begun at midnight. It formed so regular a 
part of the daily work in the temple, and the traditions 
respecting it are so minute and explicit, that we rather 
wonder at the non-mention of the place where the ashes 
were deposited. Yet all that we are told is, that they 
were carried beyond the city, into a sheltered place, that 
the wind might not scatter them, and that none might 
use them afterwards for any purpose.* I suspect that 
the present mounds are in a place too elevated and ex- 
posed to fulfil these conditions. They are, besides, a con- 
siderable way from the temple, and the whole city would 
require to be traversed in order to reach this place ; a 
most serious matter, and one which would involve a 
much greater amount of time and labour than we are 
apt to suppose. When I stood upon the mounds and 
saw the dome of the mosque, apparently so near, I did 
not feel the force of the objection, but when I measured 
the distance, and made some calculations as to the 

* See Cramer, Dessert, de Ara, vi. 11 ; and Lightfoot's Temple Service, 
chap. ix. 



NORTH SIDE THE PLACE OF THE SIN-OFFERING. 225 



amount of refuse to be carried out, I began to see that 
it had more weight than I at first gave to it. All the 
other refuse of the temple was thrown out into some 
hollow quite at hand, to save time and labour. And 
it would seem as if the valleys of the Kedron and Hin- 
nom, which the temple overhangs, had just been made 
for its sewerage. 

I have given up the idea of these mounds being the 
produce of the temple ashes, very reluctantly, and shall 
be glad to be refuted. When I walked round them 
and over them, as I often did, or dug into them with 
my staff, I was pleased with the thought that here 
were the relics of Israel's burnt-sacrifice for ages ; and 
it was with no small unwillingness that I have yielded 
to after-arguments. 

One thing, however, I still believe, that somewhere in 
this neighbourhood the sin-offering was burnt. This, 
we know, was to be done " without the camp/' and it 
was on the north side of the altar that the sacrifices 
were to be slain,* so we may conclude that, in the 
case of that sacrifice which was to be beyond the pre- 
cincts of the temple, the place of offering would be 
the north side of the city. 

We next visited the Kehur-el-Kodhd^ or tombs of the 

* Lev. i. 11 ; vi. 25 ; vii. 2. 

f I am at a loss to know how some of these Arabic words are really to 
be spelt. This word Keburis by Robinson given Kabr, by Wilson Kabar, 
by Saulcy Qbour, by Dupuis Kubour. This is the case with several other 
words. 

P 



226 



TCttIB 3 OF THE JUDGES. 



Judges. These are not the tombs of Israel's- ancient 
judges, as the name might intimate ; but of the heads 
or presidents of the Sanhedrim. Whether in addition 
to the Nasi Beth-Din, or president, the A b Beth-Din, 
or vice-president (father) of the Sanhedrim, may have 
been laid in these tombs, we know not. The tombs are 
no common ones. Not so finely ornamented on the 
outside as the Keb&r el Moluk, they are more extensive 




6* .V la" 20' 30' 40' 

: i i i 1 1 1 i ! i 1 1 1 1 

and intricate in the interior, and their pediment exhi- 
bits a design of massive but simple elegance. We en- 



JUDGES OF THE SANHEDRIM. 



227 



tered the vestibule by the large oblong doorway cut in 
the rock, and passed from this, over the rough stones ot 
the entrance, into the great square sepulchral chamber, 
by the narrow door in the rock-wall opposite to the main 
entrance. We noticed the tomb-niches in the sides, 
and the small doors leading into other chambers of this 
vast sepulchral crypt, but we did not go farther. The 
chambers and niches are numerous, we believe, but very 
much alike. There are, it is said, no less than sixty 
receptacles here for the dead, and in the lower storey 
preparations seem to have been making for adding to 
their number. Of this great rock-tomb history tells 
us nothing ; only tradition has preserved the name by 
which it is identified with the earthly resting-place of 
the Judges.* 

When first looking into these strange cells I was not 
much interested in them. They seemed like unknown 
graves over which the foot treads carelessly. Graves of 
the Nasi Beth-Din ! What do I know about these men ? 
The Jewish Sanhedrim is not a name which calls up 
much respect, associated as it is with hatred towards 
Jesus of Nazareth, and persecution of his disciples, with 
blindness and bigotry, and the decrepitude of an obso- 
lete religion. Yet was not that court once a noble as- 
sembly? And were the true history of its members 
written, would it not, at least in the centuries before 

* See De Saulcy, vol. ii. p. 243. Williams' Holy City, vol. ii. p. 151. 
Dr Robinson's Researches. Salzmann has given us a remarkably fine pho- 
tographic view of the entrance. Paris, 1856. 



228 



THE SANHEDRIM. 



Christ, appear as venerable as any Christian court or 
council, whether of Nice, or Ephesus, or Carthage, or 
Westminster ? That circle of seventy-one seats, set in 
the great room Gazith, had in it many a great, and wise, 
and holy man ; and it was out of yon central seat at the 
top that " the Judge" was transferred to this his narrow 
home at the extremity of the valley of Jehoshaphat. 
The niches here are empty ; the sarcophagi are gone ; 
no bones are here, nor even dust. Yet Ezra may have 
lain in one of these recesses ; in another Simon the Just ; 
in another Hillel of the seed of David ; in another Ga- 
maliel, the son of Simon ; in another, — but I need not 
recount the names down till Gamaliel the son of Rabbi 
Judah died ; when the title " Rabban " expired, and the 
Sanhedrim passed away. Like other creations of man 
it had done a good work as well as a bad one in its day. 
Its bigotry, its unbelief, its superstition, are embalmed 
in Rabbinism ; its goodness, its faith, its wisdom, its 
majestic patriotism, have left their ashes in these now 
empty niches. 

Leaving these venerable tombs we passed over the 
rough stony ground to the north, and crossing the broad 
depression or valley of the Kedron where it sweeps 
round to the west, found ourselves on the top of Scopus ! 
On three sides at least the view is noble. Nebi Sem- 
wil towers to the west, the Dead Sea gleams in sun- 
shine to the east ; right before us to the south is the 
city, " beautiful for situation." The mosque and the old 
castle are the prominent features of the city, shewing us 



SCOPUS OR ZOPHIM. 



229 



that two at least of the striking objects in other ages, 
seen from this spot, must have been the Temple and 
u - the tower of David, builded for an armoury/' How 
distinctly you see the ridge of Zion rising above the 
other ridges on which the town is built ! 

Over this hill of history, the Zophim of the Eabbins, 
and the Scopus of Josephus, had passed the men of a 
hundred nations, since the day that the Rephaim took 
possession of the valley stretching below it to the south. 
Here the various streams from the north had met ere 
they poured down upon the city ; friends or enemies, 
worshippers or blasphemers. The Babylonian, the Assy- 
rian, the Persian, the Grecian, the Roman, the Chris- 
tian, the Saracen, the Crusader had all been here, look- 
ing down, as we were doing, upon the strange city, which 
all so unaccountably coveted, and which each in turn 
was to gain and lose. 

As Scopus is part of the Mount of Olives, we soon 
turn the almost imperceptible angle and cross the nar- 
row depression between the two hills. The view con- 
tinues much the same ; but the central part of Olivet is 
considerably higher than Scopus. Having satisfied our 
eye with the view, we took the way to Bethany, — the 
upper road, — a road more direct, and evidently from its 
position, quite as old as the lower. Over this David 
* would pass when he fled from Absalom, for we read 
that he took the top of the hill, probably because it was 
the shorter way, and because he could not so easily be 
attacked upon it. And, besides, he seems to have wished 



230 



BETHANY IN THE DISTANCE. 



to worship on the hill-top before bidding farewell to his 
city. Whether the Lord passed this w r ay or not, we 
have no means of knowing. 

The Moslem village here with its minaret does not 
attract the eye. And the Church of the Ascension has 
been built in such ignorance of the real spot of the as- 
cension, that the idea or fact which it is meant to em- 
body and perpetuate loses its power. The ascension 
seems more real anywhere else than within sight of this 
misplaced Christian church. 

We passed down, amid the various fruit-trees that 
sprinkled the eastern side of the hill, to Bethany. As 
the afternoon was far advanced, and the clouds were 
beginning to threaten, we did not enter the village, but 
contented ourselves with a view of it from a wooded knoll, 
not a stone's cast off. It looked very lovely, nestling 
so quietly in its wooded dell, like on»3 of its own turtle- 
doves. It is the picture of seclusion and holy peace. 
We hope to revisit it soon, and to wander through the 
other wooded slopes and hollows which lie around it, 
and give to the whole of the eastern side of the hill, the 
aspect of such rich but quiet beauty. 

We now moved more quickly, as the rain was begin- 
ning to fall. We took the lower road, winding round 
the shoulder of the hill, and so completing our circuit 
It was a most pleasant day. Nor was the fellowship of 
Mr Nicolayson the least of our enjoyment. Full of 
general as well as local information, he formed a most 
agreeable companion, and a most trusty guide. Thirty 



M II JS'1C0LAY£0N. 



231 



years residence in Jerusalem Lad given him full acquain- 
tanceship with all its localities, and no one could be 
readier than he to impart his information to others. 
Frequently we saw him during our stay in the city, and 
each interview increased our esteem and affection. As 
wise as he was zealous ; as laborious as he was fervent ; 
as honest and faithful as he was loving and friendly ; 
as sincere and single-eyed as he was calm and decided : 
his life was a daily blessing to Jerusalem, and his death 
no common blow. Loved by his brethren, and specially 
by the converts of the mission, revered by all sects, and 
hated only by one ; Jew, Moslem, Greek, Armenian, 
Copt, — all but the Latin bigot, — gathered round his 
bier, and laid him in his tomb on Mount Zion, to awake 
with Israel's patriarchs, prophets, and kings, at the re- 
surrection of the just.* 

Jerusalem, February 29th. — Went out before seven 
by the Jaffa gate, and passed up the height to the west- 
ward of the city. Sat down upon a rock above the 
Moslem burying-ground, the city before me, with its 
slight, thin waves of morning-smoke ; for even in the 
east the dawn does bring with it the kindling of fires ; 
though all the fires in Jerusalem did not seem to send 
up as much smoke as one of our Scottish villages. 
How one misses here the village-smoke of dawn and 

* See a sermon preached on the occasion of the death of Mr Nicolayson 
by the Rev. J. B. Cartwright. London, 1857. The appendix, contain- 
ing letters from Dr Macgowan, Mr Hefter, Mr Crawford, and Mr Bailey, 
is full of interest. 



232 



THE GROTTO CALLED JEREMIAH'S. 



sunset, the cheerful token of glad family life within, 
round the hearth and board. Kephaim to the right, 
Scopus to the left, Olivet in front, beyond the city ; 
stillness over all ; only broken by the chirp of the bird 
at hand, or the distant fellah, shouting to his neighbour 
or his flock. You don't hear the shepherd's or the 
ploughman's song. The Arabs sung in the desert, 
sometimes as they marched along during the day, and 
sometimes at night as they sat round the blaze of their 
shrub-fire. But they don't seem to sing alone. The 
ploughman does not " whistle to his steers," nor the 
shepherd sing to his flock upon the mountain side, or 
under the shadow of the rock. 

I went to the upper pool, or Birket-el-Mamilla, 
which lies about six hundred yards, almost due west of 
the J af£a gate. I found very little water in it ; nor 
did the little that was there seem inviting. From 
this I turned eastward along by Jeremiah's grotto. 
Church-fiction, not history, has placed the prophet here, 
and made him write his Lamentations here rather than 
in Egypt, Being at a considerable height on the eastern 
face of the perpendicular rock, it commands a fine view 
of the city, and might, no doubt, have formed a very 
suitable place of Lamentation. Both the rock and the 
grotto are peculiar. The former is the northern eleva- 
tion or terminating spur of one of the hills on which 
J erusalem was built, probably Akra, as w T e shall see. The 
southern, or rather south-eastern, side of this has been cut 
away, for the face of the rock and the cave are clearly 



EXCAVATIONS AND LEVELLINGS OF AKRA. 



233 



artificial. And as this face corresponds with a similar 
face or vertical cutting, north-eastward of the Damas- 
cus gate, upon which the modern wall is built, the in- 
ference is that this hill once rose directly above the 
city, till it was cut through, either for the sake of ex- 
tending the city, or for some important object. The 
vertical section of this, seen at Jeremiah's grotto, would 
indicate that it had been previously hollowed out in 
some parts ; and if so, one might conclude this to have 
originally formed part of the great quarries (which I 
have elsewhere described) excavated beneath the city. 
A few careful measurements on the spot would shew 
how far there is probability in this conjecture.* Most 
topographers give this as part of the Hill Bezetha. 
I suspect that Bezetha lay further out, and that this 
is part of the top, or one of the heights, of Akra that we 
we see cut through. What may have been the actual 
height of the hill thus levelled we have no means of 
knowing. If the rock above Jeremiah's grotto be con- 
ceded to have been the top, then there is no difficulty. 
But if, as I believe, this rock was the lower part of the 
northern extremity of Akra, then the rise of the hill may 
have been considerable, for the width of the cutting is 
about five hundred feet, and the length is nearly three 
times that space, affording room for a very great eleva- 
tion, — an elevation which, especially if built upon or 
fortified, would overlook and command the temple ; for 

* Tobler's map shews the connection between the two faces of rock 
very distinctly. 



234 



FIELDS OF KEDRON. 



Mount Moriah is not much above a quarter of a mile 
from this* 

The reason for such an enormous levelling is not 
easily conjectured. If this is not admitted to be the 
work of the Maccabees mentioned by Josephus, we know 
not what it is. 

Passing eastward I soon came to the valley of the 
Kedron. Somewhere here, I suppose, is the place called 
" the fields of Kedron/' (2 Kings xxiii. 4), meaning the 
fields where the bed of the Kedron opens out and spreads 
itself into a broad hollow or valley. In this direction 
the outmost wall of the city must have extended, in 
order to include Bezetha. From this I went to the 
head of the steep bank, at the bottom of which lies 
Gethsemane, or at least the long rich hollow, now 
ploughed as a field, but which formerly has been a 
place of gardens, one of which was Gethsemane, — per- 
haps that one exactly at the foot of Olivet, where the 
slope of the hill comes right down from top to bottom. 
How still ! No noise, nor even life at hand, save that 
small flock of sheep feeding without a shepherd. Sit- 
ting down I read some old hymns, plucked some 
olive-leaves, and placing them in my hymn-book, slowly 
returned to the city. 

About nine, we went out with the Consul and his lady 
to the olive-plantation, lying westwards, which they are 

* l)r Robinson's map gives less than four hundred yards from the nearest 
angle of the Haram, to the wall north-eastward of the Damascus gate. 



THE JEW. 



235 



cultivating, chiefly for the sake of giving work to the 
poor Jews. Its name is Kherim Khulil, " the vineyard 
of the beloved/' and it looks most promising. We were 
greatly interested in it, and were rejoiced to find that 
Israel had such friends in Palestine, friends of soul and 
body. An Israelite in his own land needs friends 
for the body ; for who is poorer than he ? With his 
thin, but still intellectual face, and his black ringlet 
shading his pale cheek, how famished he looks, how 
desolate ! Yet he has found that he has a friend in 
Protestant England ; and that to her Consul he may 
betake himself in want or trouble. Latin, Greek, and 
Moslem, despise and hate him.* Neither in Sultan nor 
in Emperor can he obtain a protector. The Conti- 
nental priesthood grind their teeth at him even in the 

* To be sure he returns their ill-will without stint. He scowls on the 
Moslem as an Ishmaelite ; he reviles the Armenian as an Amalekite ; he 
hates the Latin, not only as an idolater, but as the representative of the 
old Empire that had laid waste his city. (As the J ewish name for a Moslem 
is an Ishmaelite, — Chronicles of Rall'x Joseph, vol. i. p. 371, &c, — so the 
old Christian name for a Moslem was a Hagarene. — Hist, of William of 
Newburgh, b. 5, chap. 14.) The Jews name for Christendom is Edom. 
" Our captivity under the Mahommedans is far more burdensome and griev- 
ous than under the Christians; and so our ancients have said, It is better to 
dwell under Edom than Ismael." — Manasseh Ben Israel's Vindiciae Juda- 
orum, sec. 10; Mendelssohn's Jerusalem, by Samuels, vol. i. p. 13. But 
though the Jew frowns and hates he does no more. The Jew is not a per- 
secutor ; nor is he a proselytiser. He is not like the Moslem, a man of 
blood, who, if he could, would murder every Jew and Christian. It is long 
since the Jew has had the sword in his hand. His lot is not to tread 
down, but to he trodden down. He knows it and submits ; but always 
with reference to the day when power and honour, a city and a kingdom 
will be his once more. 



236 



OLIVE PLANTING. 



city of his fathers ; and were it not that England would 
not permit the shame, we should still see the oppres- 
sion, if not the persecution of the Jews. Christ fed the 
the body, while he sought the soul ; and he is doing the 
truest missionary work who does both of these. Dr Mac- 
Gowan's admirable hospital and the Consul's agricul- 
tural plans, both at Kherim Khulil and Urtass, are 
proofs that the J erusalem mission has not lost sight of 
the example of the Lord. 

The plantation here is of olives, which seem to flourish 
well, and to grow rapidly. We assisted in planting 
one, about six feet high. The ground seemed to us 
too stony to admit of growth, and we wondered that 
attempts were not made to blast the rock and clear 
away the stones. But olives, we learned, love "the 
place of stones/' for round them they "wrap their roots/' 
and under them they are sheltered from the heat. 
Hence the proximity to a rock is no disadvantage ; and 
we were amazed to see the labourers, after pouring in 
water and throwing in a little soil, fill up the rest of the 
hole with stones. We saw with interest the well or 
cistern which had been made for receiving and retaining 
the rain-water, so like what we would suppose to have 
been formed in ancient times. With still greater inte- 
rest, we saw the olive-press in an under-ground cham- 
ber, which had once been a Roman columbarium. The 
whole process of expressing the oil was explained ; and 
we noticed the two different parts of the press, the 
upper and the lower, (as in the wine-press,) through 



Friday's shutting of the gates. 237 

which the liquid is made to pass; the first a mere 
machine for crushing the olive-berries so as to force out 
their oil, the latter a close-plaited sieve of straw-work, 
like a large flattened beehive, through which the oil is 
pressed by machinery, so as to leave behind it all its 
grosser appendages. 

About twelve o'clock, we left this interesting spot 
and sought our way back to the city. Its gates, how- 
ever, were shut against us ; so that, even though we 
had the Consul of England with us, we could get no ad- 
mittance. It was Friday ; and on that day, between 
eleven and one, Moslemism is assembled in the mosques ; 
soldier and civilian being summoned to worship. Lest, 
therefore, a Frank army should take advantage of the 
hour of prayer and take possession of the city, the gates 
are locked. So we had to wait patiently on the outside. 
A considerable crowd had gathered, all like ourselves 
waiting for admittance. Here was a string of camels 
from Jaffa, loaded perhaps with fruit or fish ; drivers 
and camels resting in the sunshine. Here was a similar 
group, with burdens of charcoal from the south. Young 
and old, in all the many-coloured garments of the east, 
were strolling about, or lying down, or talking to each 
other, with eloquent gesticulations. A poor half-witted 
man, of middle age, we noticed going about, quite at his 
ease, doing as he liked, nobody interfering, for insanity 
is reverenced as inspiration in the east. More than 
once he went to an open-air coffee-house, or at least 
coffee-stand, set up beneath the gate, for the refresh- 



238 



AKELDAMA. 



ment of travellers, and helped himself to coffee and 
bread at pleasure, the owner of the refreshment-box 
looking on complacently, as the poor idiot devoured his 
goods, without offering one parah in return. At length 
we heard voices and steps in the inside ; the gate slowly 
opened, and after the outward flow of passengers or 
citizens had somewhat diminished, we made our way 
forward, reached our hotel, and rested for a little. 

In the afternoon we visited Akeldama or Aceldama, 
with some of our Jerusalem friends. We examined 
minutely the many tombs of that rocky ridge. They 
are hewn out in the face of the different rocks that 
abut upon the high grassy shelf, which forms a raised 
platform running east and west, and looking down 
upon the ravine below. Olives are sprinkled here and 
there, and this broken, rocky ground, right in front of 
Mount Zion, forms as suitable a spot for a cemetery as 
we had seen. The tombs are numerous ; some on 
the face of the projecting mass, others in some with- 
drawing nook ; some merely hewn out of the hill, 
others built and adorned ; some with very small aper- 
tures for entrance ; others with doors which merely 
require a little stooping ; some with inscriptions (much 
defaced), others bare. This has evidently been the 
original necropolis of the city. Some of these tombs 
are the excavations of the ancient possessors of the 
land. Kephaim, Jebusite, Jew, Greek, Roman, 'Chris- 
tian, — all, save Moslem, lie here. Salem, Jebus, Jeru- 
salem, Aelia, the Holy City (though not El-Kuds), have 



OLD TOMBS. 



239 



their representative ashes here. One of these may be 
the tomb of Melchizedec, that other, of Araunah the 
J ebusite. The place is not used now. The Jews bury 
in what is called the valley of Jehoshaphat, as I have 
mentioned already ; and the Moslems have four or five 
graveyards in different parts of the suburbs ; none, of 
course, within the walls. Intramural burials are prac- 
tices of the west, which the east has always (with very 
few exceptions) rejected.* 

The sepulchres at the west end of the valley are the 
simplest as well as the smallest ; it may be they are 
also the most ancient. This is the more likely, as 
these lie nearest to Mount Zion and the original city. 
At the eastern angle, where the valleys meet, the tombs 
are larger and more elaborate ; some of them evidently 
of very much later date. We visited the large tomb in 
which so many remains are found. As I have already 
noticed this, I need not recur to it farther than to add, in 
a note, what I wrote regarding it on another occasion.-f- 

* See Bingham's full statements on this point in his " Origines Ecclesi- 
astics, " b. xxiii. chap. 1, in which he shews that the burying places, 
while without the walls, were on the way to the gates of the city. We ob- 
served a graveyard a little west of the Jaffa gate ; another at Jeremiah's 
grotto, outside the Damascus gate ; and another outside the eastern or 
St Stephen's gate. 

+ " That which interested us most was a very large tomb, with a small 
square entrance in the rock, in the number and arrangement of its cham- 
bers and niches, not unlike the Kebur el-Kady, or tombs of the Judges. 
Creeping in upon our knees, we found ourselves* on a floor somewhat 
lower than the level without. Lighting our candles, we commenced an 
examination. The apartment was spacious, with tiers of niches, or more 
properly coffins, on all sides. Beyond this there lay other chambers of 



240 



LARGE VAULT. 



From this we went a little farther eastward, to look 
into the large square vault near the face of the rock. 
This is not so much an excavation as a regular building, 
not unlike a rude chapel. Though its upper part rises 
above ground, yet its under part is considerably below. 
We looked down into the spacious sepulchre from an 
aperture, which was nearly on a level with the upper 
surface of the rock. We saw nothing but debris of 
stones, clay, dust, and bones. It is a gloomy charnel- 
house, even gloomier (though not quite dark) than the 
catacombs we had been visiting. It is probably of 
Christian origin, and is often referred to by the early 
pilgrims.* 

the same kind, with similar stone receptacles for the dead ; and beyond 
these again there seemed others, into which, however, we did not pene- 
trate. These excavations are extensive, and the number of niches 
very numerous. What struck us most was that they were all filled with 
bones, skulls, and dust. In each one of these stone cases, there seemed to 
have been deposited not one, but twenty or fifty bodies, so deep was the 
stratum of the brown and almost impalpable dust which the bodies had 
deposited, and so numerous the bones and fragments of bones, the skulls 
and fragments of skulls, which w T e found in every one of these niches. 
There was no sarcophagus of any kind. The bodies seem to have been 
laid here simply in their shroud. W e were the more interested in the 
sight because in no other tomb had we found any human relics." 

* "Ascending by Acheldama, we entered into a porch and looked down 
into a vault, where we saw many dead bodies, covered only with their 
winding-sheet, knit at the head and foot, without any coffin ; and some 
of their sheets were so white that they seemed to us to have been buried 
but a few days befoae we came.'* — Travels of Four Englishmen, Sc., 
p. 106. The writer of the "Pylgrymage of Sir R. Guyiforde" speaks 
of Acheldamak as being called Terra Sancta, and mentions the vault with 
seventies for casting the " deed Crysten bodies" into, as being built by 



JERUSALEM LITERARY SOCIETY. 



241 



In the evening we went to the meeting of the " Jeru- 
salem Literary Society/' at the Consul's. An interest- 
ing paper was read by the Consul on the exact site 
of Solomon's temple, specially in reference to the 
Sakhrah, or great rock. Various fossils and crystals 
from the Dead Sea and elsewhere were exhibited. The 
crystals were very fine, and of considerable size. The 
conversation that followed was of a miscellaneous 
nature, though chiefly bearing upon the paper read and 
the specimens produced. We were surprised to find 
that few of the residents took an interest in a society 
which, to us, seemed both interesting and important. 
Very much might be done in reference to the topography 
of J erusalem, and the geography of Palestine, were such 
an institute vigorously supported. Reports sent to it 
from travellers and correspondents, as well as the infor- 
mation obtained by its own members, might, if pro- 
perly digested and classified, form materials for a future 
work on these topics, more satisfactory than any that 
has appeared. No proper exploration has yet been 
made of this region. Its surface has been surveyed, 
and its upper features marked by travellers who have 
spent a day, or a week, or fortnight, here and there. 
But no digging, no trenching, has yet taken place. We 
know not what lies under the "heaps" of Jerusalem. 
Investigations such as those carried on at Nineveh 

"Seynt Elyn." " The sayde vaught (vault) is of a great depness ; the 
length is 72 fote, and the brede 50 fote," p. 34. See Felix Fabri's Evaga- 
lorium, vol. i. p. 424. He gives the fullest account. 

Q 



242 



CAVE OF ADULLAM. 



would bring up a mass of information which would set 
at rest many a disputed question. It is strange that 
nothing of this kind should have been attempted. The 
excavations made some years ago in laying the founda- 
tions of the English church, shewed substructions and 
conduits, under twenty or thirty feet of rubbish. The 
excavations carrying on just now for the building of the 
Austrian Hospice may bring other things to light. 
But still these are only partial and fragmentary opera- 
tions, not conducted on any plan or with any topo- 
graphical object in view. Something systematic ought 
to be attempted, and at half the expense laid out on 
Khorsabad, discoveries might be made at Jerusalem 
which would most materially elucidate both its history 
and its topography. We may rest assured that many 
of the old foundation-stones of tower and wall, are still 
where they were when set there by David, or Hezekiah, 
or Herod, or Agrippa, 

Jerusalem, Saturday, March 1.1856. After breakfast 
we set off for what is supposed to be the Cave of Adullam, 
Mr Graham acting as guide, and Mr Valentiner as interpre- 
ter. Across the valley of Rephaim, by Mar Elias, Rachel's 
sepulchre, and Beit Jalah we reached Bethlehem. There, 
having engaged a Bethlehemite to guide us to the cave, 
we rode on, leaving the guide to bring some provisions 
for us. Down the steep slope of the city we went, turn- 
ing eastward. Again and again we looked back for our 
guide, but he did not come. So, trusting to Mr Graham, 
we resolved to find the way ourselves. Over the end- 



THE HILL COUNTRY. 



2i3 



less heights, down the endless wadys that lie in this, 
"the hill country of Judah," we proceeded, crossing 
many a dry river-bed, beautifully paved with pebbles 
and rolled stones. We soon found ourselves almost at 
the foot of the Herodium, and had time allowed we 
should have liked to climb it. But we t were still at 
some distance from the cave, and very uncertain as to our 
way, having got quite entangled in a network of valleys, 
so like to each other, that we were bewildered. The 
day was fine and the scene was so new that we did not 
grudge the wanderings, though we began to fear that 
we should not find the cave, for our Bethlehemite had 
not made his appearance. We tried first this wady 
and then the other, first this hill, then that, but in vain. 
The Frank Mountain, still in sight and close at hand, 
assured us that we were not far out of the way ; but 
such was the labyrinth of hill and vale that we knew 
not which way to turn. At length we struck up a hill 
which Mr Graham thought he recognised as adjoining 
the place. When a good way up we met a fellah, and 
inquired as to the cave. He offered to be our guide 
and we at once proceeded. We were certainly wrong ; 
but not very far. Less than half an hour set us right, 
and an hour more brought us to the edge of the tremen- 
dous gorge on the side of which the cave enters. As the 
cave lies about half way up the face nearest us, we saw 
only the opposite precipices at first, which were bare, 
brown, and rugged in the extreme. They must be about 
a thousand feet in sheer descent, from the top of the 



244 



THE RAVINE. 



ridge lying before us to the bottom of the fearful chasm 
which the eye could not reach. The view recalled some 
parts of the Sinaitic desert, for though the heights are 
not so naked and excoriated, nor so devoid of verdure 
and life, they are quite as gloomy and savage. 

We cannot descend immediately above the entrance. 
The rock is quite perpendicular at that place.* But about 
a quarter of a mile to the left the precipice falls back a 
little, and present s merely a steep slope on which we found 
herbs and shrubs. Down this we proceed, riding part 
of the way, but soon dismounting. In about* ten 
minutes we come to a ledge in which this slope termi- 
nates, about half way down the ravine. The opposite face 
looks more and more rugged at every step. Still it was 
only a small part of the ravine that was visible, for to 
our left a projection of the rock shut out the view in 
that direction, and to the right, about a quarter of a mile 
down, the gorge took an abrupt turn, bending towards the 

* In this region the ravines are so narrow that their upper edges seem 
in some parts to approach each other, while there is a chasm of perhaps a 
thousand feet deep between. This accounts for the scene between David 
and Saul in "the wilderness of Ziph," in "the hill of Hachilab," (1 Sam. 
xxvi. 1-25). After David had taken Saul's spear and cruise, he "went 
over to the other side" (verse 13) of one of these ravines and stood upon 
"the top of an hill afar off," and then held the conversation with Saul. 
The two sides of " the hill" or precipice are quite near enough to admit of 
conversation ; but long before Saul's men could have descended the preci- 
pice on the one side, and climbed up that on the other, David would have 
escaped. When we were on the Pyramids an Arab, for a few piastres, ran 
down the one Pyramid and up the other, in ten minutes. But it would 
require ten times ten minutes at least to accomplish a like passage between 
the two sides of these ravines. 



THE PATH TO THE CAVE. 



245 



Dead Sea, to which I suppose it pursues its way, some- 
where north of Ain Jidy (En-Gedi). Before we de- 
scended to the level on which we now are, we had seen, 
from the heights above, a forest of wild grey peaks, the 
very image of sterility, extending for miles in a south- 
eastward direction. These must have been part of that 
billowy mass of hills that cover the desolate region of 
En-Gedi, throwing up their white crests in all direc- 
tions as if a storm were tossing them.* 

Having reached the narrow ledge above mentioned, 
we tied our horses, and proceeded in search of the cave, 
about half a mile along the ledge to the right. As you 
advance, the way narrows and the face becomes more 
perpendicular. Only one at a time can scramble along. 
Besides the narrowness of the path, the obstructions are 
numerous from projecting rocks. Sometimes you creep 
under, and at other times you climb over these blocks, 
some of which are detached masses, and others solid parts 
of the precipice. Here you have to step over a gap, there 
you have to squeeze yourself through a slit ; with the 
remembrance all the while that you are on the sheer 
face of a precipice, with six or seven hundred feet of 
perpendicular rock below you. At length we reached 
the landing-place, where there is room for a few^ to 

* No map that I have seen gives a proper representation of this region 
west of the Dead Sea. Even Dr Robinson's is meagre. Instead of being 
a succession of wadys some four or five miles from each other, the country 
is a continuous stretch of the most mountainous confusion I had ever seen, 



246 



THE ROCKY LABYRINTH. 



stand, and where you find two long masses of rock over 
the entrance to the cave. 

We entered the first chamber or cave and lighted 
our candles. Previously, we had been discussing the 
question as to our finding the way out of this rocky 
labyrinth, should we venture far, as it is said to extend 
for miles. Some proposed the clue of Ariadne ; but this 
might cut itself against the sharp angles. Others sug- 
gest phosphorus, which, rubbed against the rocks as we 
passed along, would leave a luminous track for our 
guidance back through all the sinuosities. But we had 
none. Besides, the exploration of the cave would be 
the work of a day, not an hour, so endless are its rami- 
fications.* 

We soon were corrected in some of our ideas. We 
had conceived of the cave as an immense recess in the 
rock, like Fingal's Cave in Staffa ; but here we saw no- 
thing of this. It is an innumerable succession of arched 
chambers, like the crypts of a cathedral. These are the 
" sides of the cave " in which David and his men con- 
cealed themselves (1 Sam. xxiv. 3) ; nor can anything 
be imagined more suitable for concealment. Hundreds 
of men could be in these " sides/' and yet a person enter- 

* Mr Caiman of Jerusalem, li an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile," 
has given an excellent account of his visit to this cave in the "Jewish 
Intelligence " for December 1848. He speaks of the cliffs here as two 
thousand feet high. This T rather doubt, though one cannot correctly 
guess. Comparing them with the cliffs of the Leontes on which Kulat 
es-Shukif stands, I should say that the latter were considerably the 
higher, and they are estimated at 1500 feet. 



ROCKY CHAMBERS. 247 

ing the cave would not be aware of their presence. 
Each chamber is a stately hall, on all sides of which 
the rocks drop down like Gothic pillars, leaving only 
here and there gateways by which you pass into the ad- 
joining chambers. You might spend days in exploring 
these vast apartments, for the whole mountain seems 
excavated, or rather honey-combed. The quantity of 
air or gaseous substance generated and imprisoned here, 
when the mass was fluid, must have been enormous, in- 
dicating, perhaps, the presence of some peculiar matter in 
the composition of the limestone which a geologist, or at 
least a chemist, might detect. We did not penetrate into 
the interior very far ; still we groped our way through 
the passages into a good many of these apartments and 
found them all much alike.* Sticking some wax-lights 
which we had, here and there, on some little projection, 
we kept up communication with the outer chamber, so 
as to have no difficulty in finding our way out. In 
some places we observed stalactites ; though these were 
not numerous, owing probably to the great dryness of 
the rock. The air was intensely hot, but quite fresh 
and dry. The stone is very much like the usual lime- 
stone of Syria, of a white or cream colour, which not 
only makes the cave more easily lighted, but gives a 
cheery brightness to the chamber. After this survey 

* Mr Caiman penetrated 500 yards, but the chambers and passages seemed 
without end. The guides assured Irby and Mangles that it has never 
been explored even by the natives, so great is its extent. The Arabs say 
that the cave extends all the way to Hebron, eighteen miles ! Van de 
Velde, vol. ii. p. 35. 



248 



david's cave. 



we retraced our steps by the same aperture as that by 
which we entered, and crept along the ledge in safety. 

That this is the true cave of Adullam seems very 
probable from the narrative of Scripture, altogether 
apart from ecclesiastical tradition. David's haunts 
were chiefly in this district ; and naturally so, because 
of the proximity of Bethlehem, his native city. Ziph, 
with its " mountain " and "wilderness" and "wood" 
and "strongholds" (1 Sam. xxiii. 14) were in this 
neighbourhood. Hachilah, and Jeshimon, and Maori, 
and Carrnel, were not far off. The " strongholds of 
Engedi" (1 Sam. xxiii. 29) belonged to this eastern 
district of Judah, and not to the western. It was 
among the impenetrable mountain fastnesses that 
stretch from Engedi northward, that David secured 
himself from Saul, and hence w r e should conclude that 
here we shall find the cave of Adullam, and not in the 
western valley or Shephelah (Josh. xv. 35), beside the 
city of that name. One or two allusions in the Scrip- 
ture history make this still more probable.* 

When David was obliged to leave Gath, he went to 
"the cave Adullam" (1 Sam. xxii. 1), which he would 

* Lieut. Van de Velde makes no doubt that this is the cave of David 
mentioned in 1 Sam. xxiv., but thinks that the cave of Adullam was a 
different one (vol. ii. p. 33, 157), and must have lain at Deir-Dubban, 
some four or five miles north of Beit-Jibrin. His proof is very brief ; nor 
does it satisfy. What he does say applies with greater force to El-Khurei- 
tun than Deir-Dubban. This last does not suit the Scripture account of 
Adullam, nor that of Eusebius and Jerome, who make it ten miles east of 
Eleutheropolis (Beit-.librin). 



BETHLEHEM, ADULLAM, MOAB. 



249 



certainly not have done had it lain as near to Gath as 
the city of Adullam did. When he came to the cave, 
" his brethren and all his father's house went down to 
him " (ib.), implying that the place lay near to Bethle- 
hem, which the present cave, where we now are, does, 
being about five miles south-east of that town ; whereas 
the city Adullam, near which the other cave of that 
name is supposed to be, is about fifteen miles off, hard 
by the territory of the Philistines. When David was 
at the cave he " went thence to Mizpeh of Moab," indi- 
cating that the country of Moab was not far off, which 
could not be said of the city Adullam. He then took 
his father and mother, and brought them to Moab, put- 
ting them under the protection of the king (1 Sam. xxii. 
3, 4*), still more decisively intimating the proximity 
between Moab and Adullam. Being w r arned by the 
prophet Gad, he left "the hold " (ib. xxii. 5.*f-), and de- 
parted, and came " to the forest of Eareth " (ib.), which 

* It was very natural for David to commit his father and mother to 
the keeping of the king of Moab ; fur his great grandmother was a 
Moabitess, (Ruth). This accounts for the connection between Mizpeh 
of Moab and Bethlehem. (Was Mizpeh Ruth's city ]) In Moab Moses 
found his resting place. To Moab Elimelech and Naomi fled in the 
day of evil, (Ruth i. 2). So God speaks to Moab concerning Israel, 1 Met 
mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab,' 5 (Isa. xvi. 4). 

f- David's "hold" in his wanderings was generally Adullam (1 Sam. 
xxii. 1, 5 ) ; and the hold was in the region of Engedi (1 Sam. xxiv. 1). 
At the same time we find a distinction made between the "rock " and 
the ' * hold," implying that there was a Metsada (or Metsudah, a fort) as 
well a3 a rock. Masada evidently takes its name from this word. It 
was "the fort" and the "rock," as in Psa. xviii. 2, " the Lord is my 
rock and my Metsudah." 



250 



KHUEEITUN AND HARETH. 



forest seems, both from what goes before and follows, 
to have not been far off. Wady Khureitun (on the 
side of which the cave lies) is probably the ancient 
Hareth or Hereth. The episode of David and the well 
of Bethlehem is another confirmation of this. Had the 
well of Bethlehem been fifteen miles off, one can hardly 
conceive of David expecting that any one should bring 
water to him, especially when in doing so they would have 
not only to encounter the garrison of the Philistines at 
Bethlehem, but the whole army encamped in Rephaim. 
(2 Sam. xxiii. 13, 14). But nothing was more natural 
than that David, parched with thirst in the cave, or 
equally so in the forest of Hereth, on the heights above 
it, should long for the pure water of his native well, 
which was almost in sight, and to obtain which his 
three mighty men had only the Philistine garrison at 
Bethlehem to break through, not " the host," which lay 
stretched far behind that city to the north and west. 

Ecclesiastical tradition may be taken for what it is 
worth. In this case it coincides with Scripture. 

Returning from the cave to the spot where we had 
left our horses, we observed some ruins on a projecting 
platform to the left. They did not strike us as in any 
way remarkable, either for their extent or their anti- 
quity. Again and again before leaving we gazed upon 
the vast precipices that fronted us, and down into the 
horrible rent beneath us, that seemed a split in the 
very foundations of the earth, as if some of its " bars " 



BEDAWEEN HOBBERS. 



251 



(Jonah ii. 6) had snapped, and opened a seam in its 
lowest base.* 

We had reached the cave by a circuitous road, but 
we were guided home over the hill by a direct one. We 
had hardly gone above a quarter of a mile when, in a 
small hollow near the top of the ridge, we lighted on an 
encampment of marauding Bedaween. Out they came 
upon us, young and old, demanding backshish. Mr 
Graham held them in parley, shaking hands with them, 
saldming them, and saying all manner of polite things 
to them, while the rest of us were getting out of their 
reach. Having put them into good humour, he gave 
them a few piastres and then rocle off. Had we not 
gone out of our road we should have come right down 
upon this horde at first, and should either not have seen 
the cave at all, or only at a great price. Perhaps we 
might have been thoroughly robbed, for we should have 
been entirely in their power, as we had no sheikh to 
protect us. But a gracious God had permitted us to 
lose our way, and so spared us this danger. How much 
one sometimes gains by losing their way ! 

Leaving the black tents of the robbers behind, we 
were soon upon the top of the height, on our way back 
to Bethlehem. t In many parts of these hills we could 
trace the remains of wood. There were still shrubs 

* See Van de Velde's Syria and Palestine, vol. ii. p. 33. 

f Much we should have liked to have gone south-westward and visited 
Beit-Jibrin, the ancient Eleutheropolis, with which the reader of Jerome 
must be as familiar as with Bethlehem and Jerusalem. But we should 
have required another day to accomplish this. 



252 



MR HEFTER's MEETING. 



here and there, and some trees. Once there had been 
more. All this may have been " the forest of Hareth ;" 
and certainly if Hareth means " cutting down/' it is true 
to its name. There has been enough of this here. Per- 
haps it was the forest out of which timber was cut down 
for Bethlehem, Tekoah, and the other villages round 
about. 

We reached J erusalem about sunset, after a pleasant 
but fatiguing day. We had ridden in all at least eight 
and twenty miles, over hill and dale, rock and ridge, 
with not the vestige of a road anywhere. But we saw 
a great deal of " the hill-country of Judah," and this 
was worth all our toil. 

In the evening we went to the house of Mr Hefter, 
one of the missionaries here, and a most excellent man, 
to be present at a meeting which he holds on Satur- 
day evenings for the Jews. There were about forty 
Jews present, some of them converts, some merely in- 
quirers. We were deeply interested in what we saw and 
heard. Parts of Scripture were read, inquiries invited, 
conversation carried on, and difficulties resolved. All 
was well conducted. German, English, and Hebrew 
were the three languages made use of in turns. The 
singing, or rather chanting, struck us most of all. It 
was in Hebrew, and carried on by forty male voices, was 
truly thrilling. I shall never forget the chanting of the 
cxr. Psalm by those fine J ewish voices. How it rung 
through the whole man ; so rich, so full, so strong. The 
Hallelujah, especially, which came in at the commence- 



JEWISH PSALMODY. 



253 



ment of each verse, and was sung alone by the leader of 
the choir before the other voices took it up, was exquisite. 

I add the Hebrew itself, with the music. The reader 
will no doubt be able to enjoy it when sung by Chris- 
tian voices in a Christian land. But there was an in- 
describable pathos as well as power in it, as sung upon 
Mount Sion, at the close of the Jewish Sabbath and the 
commencement of ours. I need not print the whole 
psalm, a verse or two will suffice. 



PSALM CXI.* 
FP Mil 

t : 

T •• t ; 

: my* 



rnrr nc^p 



nin^ rrriH i 

T 

antfrvr 
Tirnrrtn in 

T T ; 



* In singing the above Psalm, I observed that they conformed to Jewish 
prejudice, and substituted Adonai for Jehovah. I doubt the propriety 
of this. The feeling which leads to the substitution of the one name for 
the other is superstition, not reverence; it is wholly rabbinical, not 
scriptural. 



254 



PSALM CXI. 



WW 



M 



o 



• I- 1 



GETHSEMANE. 



255 



Jerusalem, Sabbath, March 2. — After worshipping 
with the congregation on Mount Sion in the forenoon, 
I went, as there was no afternoon service, to spend 
some hours in Gethsemane, with the Bible and an old 
hymn-book as companions. Passing down through the 
hollow, I was struck with the crimson anemonies grow- 
ing in all directions.* They spoke of the " great drops 
of blood falling down to the ground/' These were 
solemn hours beneath that old olive, remembering Him 
who died and rose again, and learning here again for the 
thousandth time how entirely he had finished his great 
work of sin-bearing, having, " his own self borne our 
sins, in his own body on the tree/' What a testimony 
these old olives, and these ancient rocks, and this hill 
above, seemed to bear to the work of the sin-bearer ! 
It is not love alone that speaks from this hollow, but 
righteousness and truth. " Without shedding of blood 
is no remission/' But there is remission no\\ r , for blood 
has been shed ; life has been given for life, so that death 
need no longer be the portion of the condemned. " He 
is not here indeed, he is risen f but I see the place 
where the Lord lay. He was dead, but he is alive. I 
do not come here to seek the living among the dead. 
I come only to learn more thoroughly how true is the 
great story of his death, and how certain is my life, in 

* This crimson anemone is said, in hue, to resemble the Tyrian dye 
(Braunius de Vestitu Sacerd. Hebr. p. 206), which again the above author 
compares to ossenbloet, blood of oxen. 



256 



LOVE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. 



receiving the Father's testimony to that wondrous 
death. 

What a testimony is Gethsemane against the fond 
dreams of those who see nothing but the mere effusion 
of benevolence in all this agony, and blood, and death ! 
What a w r aste of sorrow w r as here, if all for which " the 
Word was made flesh" was to tell us of the love of 
God ! " God is love" seems written on each leaf of 
this olive that waves over me ; but the love is righteous 
not unrighteous love, lawful not unlawful grace. It is 
love that condemns sin, not as a mere moral disease or 
physical misfortune, but as guilt to be dealt with by 
the Judge ; love that manifests its condemnation of 
the Son, by that very deed of substitution through which 
it sets free the sinner. 

Afterwards I went up to the Jewish burying-ground 
in the " valley of Jehoshaphat," and there sat down 
upon a gravestone, with Hebrew inscriptions all round 
me, Jewish dust beneath me, and the beautiful city 
right before me ; stillness and sunshine over all. As 
believers in a risen Christ, our thoughts do not, even 
in a graveyard, turn so naturally to death and dust 
and corruption, as to life and immortality and glad- 
ness. " The resurrection of the just ! M What a bright- 
ness does it cast over the shades of the tomb ! Across 
this spot where I am sitting, must Jesus have gone, 
when he " led out his disciples as far as to Bethany," 
that from the other side of the hill he might ascend to 
heaven. Not on this side of Olivet would he ascend ; 



HEBREW EPITAPHS. 



257 



for the city that had rejected him was not to be allowed 
to witness his ascension. Ere he rise?, he puts the 
mountain between him and Jerusalem ; and then, 
within sight of that sweet village (the emblem of peace) 
that had so often been his home and place of fellow- 
ship with brethren on earth, he goes up to his home 
above, to the nearer fellowship of his Father and our 
Father, his God and our God. To this mountain, we 
also know, He is to return, and on it to set his feet 
once more (Zech. xiv. 4). 

The Hebrew inscriptions here are very numerous, 
and one felt no common interest in sitting in the 
midst of these, and running the eye over one and an- 
other, though they are rather hard to be deciphered, 
on account of their contractions. Of one of our visits 
to them Mr Caiman was the companion ; of another, 
Mr Nicolayson, and by their aid we read a few. A 
whole field of Jewish tombstones ; and these upon the 
mount of Olives, looking down upon Jerusalem ! Two 
of these inscriptions I subjoin, copied for me afterwards 
by Mr Bailey, whose Christian kindness it is a pleasure 
to remember. The first is a Kabbi's, commencing, as 
usual, with the word Tsiiin, a mark, or sign, or epitaph.* 
I subjoin a translation, which comes as near the original 
as the brief and quaint style of epitaph will allow : — 

* Monumentum Sepulchrale ; Epitaphium. Buxtorff. See Levi's Lingua 
Sacra, vol. v., sub voce. On the subject of Jewish Epitaphs, see Carpzov's 
Annotations on Goodwin, p. 645. Also Hottinger and Geier. 



258 



THE EABBI 'S EPITAPH. 



)V2 

a*pbx imb rrn 
nbp rrrrun mp p» 
ma 1 ? mwn d^k "6 

Hxwn &m rapi pot 
m ^3n HOW 1 ? xipi r>y 

nnn Kin nvi «p 

t^pn rop? nay f D*n 
2pr,n v nan rb ia 
n t^dh ihjd "innon Kin 

1W 

* Epitaph. — Here is a head of gold. Was he not beloved of the 
Almighty 1 a precious stone, and to discourse of him is easy. The Al- 
mighty meant it for good when he enlightened him from his glory, as they 
lighten the seven lamps ; his shaft, and his branch, it kindled his people. 
And he called him by the name Hephzibah. He was a bringer to light of 
all that is hid ; his was glory ; his was brightness. Was he not the 
wonderful and honoured Eabbi, the perfect theologian (cabbalist) of the 
Almighty, the holy, the pious, our honoured teacher and lord Eabbi, 
Chaiim, son of Aier. He grew old, seeking in the Upper Yeshibah (place 
of study) ; on the 15th day of the month Thamuz, in the year 5550 (i.e. 
the year a.d. 1790), gaining the splendour of the Shecinah. He is the 
author of the book "The Lord, the king," (Hammelech hashem). and 
the book " Toar" (Form), and the book "Or ha-haiim," (Light of the 
laving), and the book " Eishon le-Zion " (Isa. xli. 27), " First to Zion." 



EPITAPH OF THE RABBI'S WIFE. 



259 



The next is his wife's. It commences also with the 
Jewish tomb-mark, Tsiun, — 

TPS 

naa mKB/vri n^ysn mi 
o rt&r nm rf?yn 2b na 
jnn rvrai rf&iron 
rbpft bi by /Vnyn *rn mMB ibo 

njw 1 ? ^ "ton rmrn nszra nnns rrs 
wnN^n n^y^ni on^n 
mo in nVsr Main 
rnpn am uan lmo motor 
itoy i D^n iinioa xwnp ntdh 
itwr oann Ta:in na nn V? 
raqy pn nt^D h'm DDiion 

In the evening I conducted service in the school- 
room, as on the two previous Sabbaths. Another ser- 
mon in Jerusalem ! " that thou hadst hearkened to 
my commandments ; then had thy peace been as a 
river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea 

* An Epitaph. — Great in degree and glorious ; the heart of her husband 
trusted safely in her ; praised as a woman that feareth the Lord. She was 
the king's daughter all glorious within, who rose above all elevation, and 
was perfect in beauty, glory, and righteousness. She opened her mouth 
with wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness ; a stem of high 
descent and elevation. Was she not the Rabbiness (Mrs Rabbi), the 
pleasant roe, and the widow of our master and teacher, the holy Rabbi, 
the holy pious Chaim, the son of Ater, of blessed memory. She was 
daughter of the mighty and wise, the high prince, our honoured teacher, 
Rabbi Moses, the son of Ater, of blessed memory. 



260 



NEBI SEMWIL. 



words which look like a foreshadowing of those uttered 
by the Son of God over this city. " O that thou hadst 
known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that 
belong to thy peace I" 

Jerusalem, Monday, March 3. — Between nine and 
ten we started for Kebi Semwil. Mr Valentin er was 
our guide ; nor could we have had a better. His infor- 
mation was full and ready, and his Christian fellowship 
made the way most pleasant. Our way lay by the 
tombs of the Judges, at which, in passing, we stopped 
to take a second look. Then, over I know not how 
many hills and dales, as rough with rocky debris as can 
be imagined, we proceeded, till we reached the hill on 
which this monument is erected. It is steep ; but we 
soon ascended it, though the wind blew strongly. Leav- 
ing our horses in the court, we went to the top of the 
tower, where we remained upwards of an hour, admiring 
the view and examining the country on all sides. We 
ought to have seen the Mediterranean ; but there were 
clouds in the horizon, which hindered our prospect. At 
our feet lay the valley of Ajalon, stretching south-west 
by west, and north-east by east. It is a broad, winding 
valley, with El- Jib (the ancient Gibeon, Josh. ix. 3, &c.) 
in the middle, on a fine rocky mound or platform, 
sloping upwards in natural terraces. Eeyond Gibeon 
we saw Ram-allah. to the north-west ; Bethhoron, the 
Upper, which lies more to the west, beyond Gibeon, 
was hidden behind the hills ; and Kirjath-jearim, which 
lies due west, was also concealed. To the north-east, there 



GIBEON. 



261 



was er-Ram (Ramah, Isa. x. 29), on the side of a hill ; 
then, more to the east, T'tdeU-el-Ful, which seems to 
be the Gibeah of Saul. Then Qcdlim was pointed out, 
though its special site and name I failed to catch. 
Then Andta, the ancient Anathoth. To the south was 
pointed out the termination of a valley, which is sup- 
posed to be that of Elah, where David slew Goliath.* 
After remaining about an hour on the flat top of the 
tower, and reading the different passages relating to the 
scenes around, we descended, not without an examina- 
tion of the interior as well as the exterior of the tower. 
That this is Samuel's burying-place is improbable ; 
that it is Mizpeh, is hardly less so, though, no doubt, it 
would make an excellent " watch-tower/' 

We went down the hill towards Gibeon amid fields 
of olives. We went up close to the city, though we did 
not enter it. It is finely situated both for strength and 
beauty. It is not so much a city set on a hill, as a hill 
round which a city has been coiled, whose walls and dwell- 
ings, beginning with the lowest terrace, must have risen 
up, tier above tier, to the top. We looked in the direction 
of the plain of Ajalon, and tried to form some idea of 

# Wady-es-Sumt is the modern name of the valley, which is, I suppose, 
the ancient Azmaveth (Nehem. xii. 29), which the Greek gives as Atf/JsUjQ. 
There is no reason for making Surnt a corruption of Surd, as if ** Acacia 
Wady" were meant. 

t On the top of one of the small outhouses here we noticed (as often 
elsewhere in Palestine) the bee-hives, formed of long earthenware jars, 
laid horizontally one above the other. The bees were flying about ; but 
it seemed as if their provender must be scant in a height so bare as this, 
round which there are- no gardens, no hills of heather, and but poor 
patches of wild- flowers. 



262 



Joshua's battle. 



the scene. We could suppose the hosts of the Amorite 
kings all gathered in this very hollow which we were 
traversing, for " the five kings of the Arnorites, the king 
of J erusalem, the king 1 of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, 
the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered them- 
selves together and went up and encamped before Gi- 
beon, and made war against it/' (Josh. x. 5). Some, 
we believe, have objected to the Scripture narrative of 
Joshua's great battle here, and affirmed that the sun 
could not have been over Gibeon at all, nor the moon 
over the valley of Ajalon. We could see no diffi- 
culty in the matter ; and besides, an objection of this 
kind assumes a much more minute knowledge of the 
exact spot where the battle was fought, as well as of 
the geography of the region, than we possess. The 
general topography of the valley or the city certainly 
presents not the slightest difficulty. The village of 
Yalo (Ajalon) we did not see, but the extreme end of 
the valley was pointed out. Moving along here we seem 
to hear the noise of the battle, and above it the voice 
of the leader — 

Sun ! stand thou still upon Gibeon ! 
And thou moon, in the valley of Ajalon. 

How true did these words seem ; how real the whole 
transaction between Joshua and the Lord ; for very 
strikingly does the narrative ascribe the miracle to such 
a transaction, telling us, not that Joshua spake to the 
sun and moon, but " then spake Joshua to Jehovah" 
(Josh. x. 12), " sun, stand thou still/' Twice over in the 



THE MIRACLE. 



263 



next verse we are told that " the sun stood still, and 
the moon stayed/' intimating the reality of the miracle. 
And then, as if to set aside all future question as to this 
reality, it is added, " there was no day like that, before 
it or after it, that the Lord hearkened to the voice of a 
man."* 

What Nehi-Semwil was in ancient times is not 
easily determined. The Moslem name and tomb con- 
nect it with Samuel, but of this connection there is no 
proof. -f- Dr Eobinson makes it Mizpeh ; but this is also 
doubtful. Mr Stanley makes it the high-place of Gibeom 

* After reading over Mr Stanley's vivid description of the battle four or 
five times, I cannot discover whether he believes in the above miracle. 
He quotes the passage, that is all ; and in regard to verse 11, he makes 
" the great stones which the Lord did cast from heaven" upon the enemy, 
to be merely ''one of the fearful tempests that sweep over the hills of 
Palestine," (Sinai and Palestine, p. 206). Mr Stanley writes regarding the 
miracle of the sun and moon, " It is on this point that the Book of Jashar 
presents us with that sublime picture, which however variously it always (1) 
has been, and perhaps always will be interpreted, we may here take as we 
find it there expressed." If the reader will turn to verse 12 he will see 
that the description is not taken from the Book of Jasher, It is given by 
the writer of the inspired narrative. The citation from the Book of Jasher 
merely comes in at the close ; so that the question is not as to the inter- 
pretation of the Book of Jasher, but of the Book of Joshua. 

f Does the Moslem really mean the Prophet Samuel ? There is a tradi- 
tion of "the daughter of Samuel, mistress of a noble family," who died 
in the seventh or eighth century, and was buried on Olivet, her tomb 
being afterwards a place of pilgrimage. (Jalal-Addin, Hist., p. 152.) 
There was, it would seem, a famous Samuel, and his daughter, among the 
Mahommedans ; and as they are exceedingly good at combining and con- 
founding names places, &c. (calling the Frank monarchs of the Crusades 
by the name of Nebuchadnezzar, &c), they may have done so with Nebi- 
Semwil. 



264 



JERUSALEM LANTERNS. 



where the tabernacle was for a time ; but this is only 
conjecture.* As yet this mountain is one of the doubt- 
ful things in the geography of Palestine. 

On our way home we saw Kuhtndia, Nebala, and 
Beit-Hanina, The last of these places gives name to 
a wady, which we crossed both in coming and going, 
though not exactly at the same point. We got back 
to J erusalem about three, the day still bright and fresh. 
We spent a pleasant evening at the Bishop's, with the 
missionaries and other Christian friends. 

As there are no street-lamps in Jerusalem, one must 
have their lantern or fenus when needing to be in the 
streets after sunset ; both because you would be laid 
hold of by the guard as a suspected person, if found 
without a light, and because the rough narrow streets 
really require it. Our Jerusalem waiter, Gabrael, con- 
sidered it as regular a part of his duty to come for us 
with his lantern, as to wait at table. On he marched 
before us, up one narrow street and down another, al- 
ways holding the light as near the ground as possible 
to indicate the ruts and stones, for it was our feet that 
alone seemed to need the light. We thus found new 
meaning in the passage, " thy word is a lamp unto my 
feet, and a light unto my path," (Psa. cxix. 105). 

I may mention here, that more than once I visited 
the church of the Holy Sepulchre, going through all its 
parts, and witnessing some of its processions. But there 

* It is true that Epiphanius speaks of " the mountain of Gibeon," but he 
says that it is eight miles from Jerusalem, whereas Neby Semwil is only 
four or five at the most. 



CHURCH OF THE SEPULCHRE. 265 

is nothing true in it ; all is fiction, got up for gain. You 
ascend some steps, and, near a splendidly decorated altar 
at the end of the chamber, you see an elevation covered 
with wood ; beneath this is the hill of Calvary ! You wish 
to see the rock itself, but a small slit in the wood is lifted 
up, like the lid of a box, a piece of rock is pointed out and 
you are told, that is the rock ! Those who know about 
the building, say that it is a bit of stone stuck in there, 
and that there is no rock underneath. The aj3pearance 
of the place convinced us that such is likely to be the 
case. It is another of the lies of which this whole struc- 
ture is one sad congeries. As a coral reef is the pro- 
duct of innumerable insects, each one building his own 
cell and dying, yet in his death adding another atom to 
the mass ; so is this Church ; every stone, arch, pillar, 
altar, statue, image, picture, lamp, being a falsehood ; 
the whole, from floor to dome, one gorgeous imposture. 
There is here nothing real, nothing genuine. It is out 
and out an ecclesiastical hoax. In the Latin convent 
we did indeed stumble upon a piece of reality. Pulling 
out a drawer, the long-robed monk shewed us the sword 
and spurs of Godfrey ! Whatever our opinion of God- 
frey might be, here at least was an authentic relic of 
the eleventh century. Taking this fragment of reality 
into our hands, we were carried at once back to crusad- 
ing days. It was the memorial of war, not peace ; but 
still it was true ; it was one tine thing in the midst of 
a thousand falsities ; and the feeling arising from the 
contrast was indescribable. The sword is not remarkable ; 



266 THE SWORD OF GODFREY. 

considerably less in size than that of Sir William Wal- 
lace at Dumbarton ; but an officer who was with us, and 
who tried it in various ways, assured us that it was a 
first-rate article ; so shaped as that, when a stroke is 
delivered, the weight is thrown towards the point. 

Strange, that the only fragment of reality to be found 
in such a spot, should be a warrior's sword ! 

Gelgotha,* Gethsemane, Moriah, Zion, what a mixture 
of the true and the untrue rests above you ! The truest 
and the untruest things in the world are here ; the 
one alternating with the other, and producing changes 
the most abrupt and unaccountable. 

All religions have been here ; yet is there only one 
religion, one truth, one Christ, one God. Religions 
change ; religion changes not. Places of worship shift 
about, are cast down and rebuilt ; sometimes filled 
with one name, sometimes with another. True wor- 
ship must be always the same, making mention of One 
name. There have been many religions on these hills 
since the Son of God died on Golgotha. For a while it 
was the religion of Jupiter, then it was the religion 01 
Mary, then of Mary and Mahomet together, and now it is 
that of Mahomet. But the time is coming when reli- 
gions shall pass away, and the one living Jehovah be 
worshipped ; not through Mary or through Mahomet, 
but through Jesus Christ his incarnate Son. 



* Golgotha is the proper came ; Calvary is a Lalinism of after ages, 
not to be found in Scripture. 



CHAPTER X.^ 



DIOCESAN SCHOOL — DEPARTURE FOR MARSABA WADI-KEDRUN — MARSABA 

DEAD SEA — THE GHOR WHIRLWINDS JORDAN AIN HAJLAH 

JERICHO AIN- ES -SULTAN RETURN TO JERUSALEM. 

Jerusalem, March 4. — After breakfast we visited the 
Diocesan school. The building is large and comfortable, 
but the attendance small. The rooms are capable of 
accommodating a considerable number, and, if a higher 
style of education were adopted, the school might com- 
pete with the educational institutions of Latins and 
Greeks, which are largely attended, having, I believe, 
upwards of thre^ hundred children in each, and con- 
ducted by very superior masters. A first-rate edu- 
cation is given, embracing all branches ; and I am told 
that the proficiency of the children in these schools 
would do no discredit to some of our best academies at 
home. There is a general desire for education, and the 
parents of all creeds are anxious to obtain the best. 
Of this the Latin and Greek churches are fully availing 
themselves ; and thus they are gathering round them 
the youth of J erusalem. Their patriarchs and prelates 
are seizing the education of Egypt and Palestine. 



268 



THE PARTY. 



At half-past twelve, we started for Marsaba, from 
time immemorial the halting place or "Mutatio" of 
travellers bound for Jordan and the Dead Sea. Some 
take the Jordan first and spend the first night at Jericho ; 
others take the Dead Sea first and rest at the convent 
of St Saba, which, though a short day's journey, is the 
only w r atering-place on the route ; and, I need hardly 
say, that in these lands of scanty and infrequent w r ater, 
it is the position of the well that regulates the day's 
march. The morning's inquiry is not as to where is 
the next hotel, but as to where is the next spring or 
pool. In the desert it was not so ; as we carried water 
with us for ourselves, and our camels could do without 
it for three or four days ; but in Syria it is different. 
Horses and mules are not made for the same endurance 
of thirst as the camel. 

Our party w r as a tolerably large one, more than 
doubling our desert numbers. We had young and old, 
ladies and gentlemen, Americans as well as English 
and Scotch, — a most agreeable company. Tw t o Sheikhs 
of the Ghor Arabs accompanied us, as guides and pro- 
tectors. They w r ere gaily dressed, their coloured robes 
flowing out and shewing their well-knit frames ; their 
swarthy faces looking out from under their large over- 
hanging kefias, whose red and yellow stripes nodded 
gracefully in the sunshine or floated in the wind, as their 
wearers, spurring their hardy steeds, and brandishing 
their long spears, scoured the plain or scaled the hill, or 
shewed off their prowess in the mimic fight. 



VIEW OF JERUSALEM. 



269 



At half-past twelve the cavalcade moves out over the 
rough, slippery pavement of the Jaffa gate, and beneath 
the double arch (one flat, the other peaked) which the 
gates of the city present. We rode slowly down the steep 
of Zion, then, passiug through what is called the val- 
ley of Hinnom, we see above us Akeldama on the right. 
Turning down Wady Kedrun, or rather from Wady 
Kedmn into Wady en-Nar,* at Bir Eyub, we pursue for 
some distance a southward course. The valley here is 
more spacious than between the city and the Mount of 
Olives. The narrow ruggedness which is seen at and 
above the village of Siloam has widened out into a fer- 
tile, grassy hollow, richly studded with olives, which, 
however, have not the aged appearance and the many 
stems which we find in Gethsemane. The road winds 
through a succession of striking ravines. In less than 
an hour, from the time we left the city, our course bends 
eastward. Up to this turn we have got occasional 
glimpses of Jerusalem as we look back, up the valley 
of the Kedron. The last of these is exquisite. It is a 
view of the city through the long narrow vista of the 
rocky defile. We linger to look at it, and it well re- 
pays the lingering. These varied glimpses which you 
get of Jerusalem from so many different points, high 
and low, and under so many ever-changing aspects, 
bring back perpetually the old words of one who knew 

* I do not profess to know where the one wady ends and the other 
begins. It is likely that in ancient times the whole bed, down to the 
Dead Sea, was the Kedron. 



270 



A LOCUST. 



it well, and had seen it from every height and hol- 
low, — 

" Beautiful for situation." 
Not feeling very comfortable on the horse which has 
been assigned me, I ask Haji Ismail what is to be done. 
He summons one of the Sheikhs, who at once gives me 
his steed, and mounts my shabbier one. But though 
the animal I have got is a better one, it is more un- 
manageable, and besides, the shovel stirrups with their 
short straps do not give either a firm or an easy seat, as 
we mount or descend the endless succession of steeps 
and hollows which here, like so many vast furrows or 
ridges, run up from the valley of the Kedron. So in 
the course of half an hour I dismount, and walk for a 
little. The bed of the brook down which we saunter is 
dry. At first it is smooth and sandy ; afterwards it be- 
comes rougher, with ruts and stones. I find some ad- 
vantage in walking, as I can look better about me, and 
gather specimens of the many wild flowers that are 
growing along the edges and up the slopes. One of our 
party picks up a locust, perhaps an inch and half long. 
This is the first that we have seen. The season is not 
yet far enough advanced for them. It is difficult, in 
picking up a single specimen of the tribe, to conceive 
how they could form so dire a scourge as we know they 
have often done. It is this small insect which this 
child beside me holds between his fingers, and to whose 
tiny claws he is presenting a minute round stone, which 
it grasps convulsively, that has swept over kingdoms 



BANKS OF KEDRON. 



271 



and laid them desolate in a day. It was this insect, not 
longer than three grasshoppers, that "went up over all 
the land of Egypt, so that the land was darkened/' 
that " did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of 
the trees/' till " there remained not any green thing in 
the trees or in the herbs of the field, through all the land 
of Egypt " (Exod. x. 1 5). The form of a locust is not 
unlike that of a grasshopper, but more striking, resem- 
bling a miniature horseman, to w T hich perhaps lies the 
reference in Rev. ix. 7, " The shapes of the locusts were 
like unto horses prepared unto battle/' Yet irresistible 
as was the onset of these myriads, they were at the 
mercy of each breeze ; "I am tossed up and down as 
the locust " (Psa. cix. 23). An east wind brings them 
(Exod. x. 13) ; the west wind hurries them away (ib. x. 
19). 

But the banks of the Kedron soon rise into rugged 
precipices, some hundreds of feet in height, forming a 
narrow and impassable ravine, fit haunt for the jackal 
and the eagle. We must now quit the brook, and 
diverging slightly to the right, ascend the height on 
which Marsaba is built. For an hour we continue 
ascending and winding. The road is rough ; here over 
broken stones, there over flat slippery rocks, on which 
our horses more than once threaten to lose their footing. 
As we near the convent, the road becomes more level, and 
there is a low wall of loose stones on our left, which is 
by no means unnecessary, as the precipice on which it 
is built, and on the ledge of which we are climbing, is 



272 



MARSABA 



fearfuL Sometimes we lose sight of it ; at other times 
we look down into its depths, and see, on the side oppo- 
site to us, caves in every recess, and ruins on every 
ledge. These exactly resemble what we saw at Feiran. 
They seem to have been dug or built for the same pur- 
pose as those in the peninsular desert, and probably 
about the same time. In these, thousands of hermits 
sought to purchase a name here, and heaven hereafter, 
by living like worms or wild beasts ; neglecting every 
call of sympathy, and love, and duty. 

About four we reach Marsaba ; but we prefer to 
encamp outside, in a pleasant hollow, about a hundred 
yards from the convent, whose high walls and massive 
towers overlook our tents. We see the monks moving 
about upon the roof, wondering, no doubt, that we 
should prefer the tent to the cloister. The former, 
however, has charms for us which the latter has not ; 
and the remembrances of Abraham and his tent are 
pleasanter to us than those of St Saba and his cell. 
Yet the convent stands nobly upon the mighty cliff, a 
much more imposing structure than that of St Kathe- 
rine at Mount Sinai. It crowns the precipice, and, 
taking advantage of the bold inequalities of the descent, 
it has fitted in its buttresses and battlements to the 
various shelves and ledges, so as to present, on one side 
especially, not so much one castle or convent as an 
assemblage of these, spreading out in wings on both 
sides, and rising, tier above tier, upon the receding 
rock. We spend the evening in wandering over the 



CROSSING THE KEDEON. 



273 



overhanging heights, and sauntering up the Led of a 
small torrent, which, when in flood, sends its hasty 
waters into the Kedron, but which was now wholly 
dry, its bed partly flat rock and partly grey sand. We 
are indebted to the well of the courtyard of the con- 
vent for the excellent water, which our muleteers are 
drawing up with ropes, getting access to it by a small 
low postern in the outer wall. It is not the " noise of 
archers" in " the place of the drawing of water " (Judges 
v. ] 1), that we hear, but the voices of monks and muk~ 
rayi, sometimes scolding and sometimes helping each 
other. 

Marsaba, Wednesday, March 5. — We rise before 
the sun, about five o'clock, in order to give ourselves 
sufficient time for the Dead Sea and Jordan. In conse- 
quence of the usual amount of Arab delay and con- 
fusion, we are not able to start till a quarter to eight. 
We have been speculating as to which way our path lies. 
How shall we cross that enormous chasm, which looks 
so like the valley of the shadow of death ? Or how 
shall we find a road up these steeps that lie in front ? 
W e seem hemmed in on all sides ; must we retrace our 
steps ? We must ; and, following our guides, we find 
that we have to return for upwards of a mile, along the 
road by which yesterday we ascended to the con- 
vent. Keeping this road, we soon arrive at the place 
where the perpendicular sides of the ravine have sunk 
down into mere rising grounds. Now we can cross the 
ravine. We do so ; turning to the right, and moving 

s 



274 



VIEW OF THE DEAD SEA. 



eastwards across a succession of ravines, and hillocks, 
and undulations, till we reach the Dead Sea, about half- 
past twelve. On a height, somewhat more than a mile 
from the place where we crossed, we get our first view 
of the sea. We had seen it several times from the 
Mount of Olives, but that was far off. Now it is near ; 
not eight miles off. We gaze right down upon its waters, 
which now, in the glow of morning, look bright and 
clear. There they lie, lifeless and motionless, but in- 
tensely blue. At this distance not a wave seems to rise, 
nor a ripple to stir. Only the silent clouds float lazily 
above them, as if suspended in a dense air. The shadows 
come and go, in seams or patches, across the surface. 
The mountain-wall of Moab flings down its long line of 
shade, increasing the solemn majesty of the scene, while 
deepening its unearthly gloom. Dull exhalations seem 
occasionally to rise, reminding one of the time when 
Abraham from some similar height to the south of this 
spot, " looked toward Sodom and Gomorrha, and toward 
all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke 
of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace/' 
(Gen. xix. 28). Yet, upon the whole, beauty, not gloom, 
is the characteristic of the scene, — beauty which is not 
marred, but rather heightened, by the stern grandeur of 
the hills of Moab. 

These hills of Moab, what a noble background do 
they form to the views in Southern Palestine, and how 
necessary a part do they seem to act in every scene ! 
You have hardly crossed into the land when you 



HILLS OF MOAB. 



275 



catch a glimpse of their grey summits, and you do not 
lose sight of them for an hour till you have passed 
many a mile north of J erusalem. Like some of the 
higher ranges of the desert, they shew themselves 
everywhere ; not indeed in rugged peaks, but, not less 
attractively, in long ranges of steep mountain preci- 
pices, whose undulating line of summit, as well as light 
and shade of slope, are quite peculiar to themselves. 
One gets to love these stern hills, and to look on them 
as friends, the unchanged relics of the great eastern 
rampart which once defended the land. On some of 
these heights Balaam stood, with Balak and his princes, 
looking down eastward upon Jacob's goodly tents, and 
westward, across that sea, upon the goodlier land on 
which Israel was about to enter. More to the north yon- 
der, perhaps was Pisgah, whence Moses saw the land, 
and Nebo, where he died. Behind these, some twenty 
miles right eastward, lies Medeba, over which the pro- 
phet represents Moab as " howling/' (Isa. xv. 2) ; a few 
miles north-eastward, Baal-Meon, once the temple of 
Baal, and "the glory" of Moab, (Ezek. xxv. 9) ; a few 
miles north of this Heshbon, the royal city, under whose 
deceitful shadow the fugitives of Moab took refuge, 
(Jer. xlviii. 45) ; a few miles still farther north, Elealeh, 
" watered with the prophet's tears," (Isa. xvi. 9).* Nearer 
us, but a little to the south, among these hills lies 

* ... In Hesebon 

And Horonaira, Seon's realm, beyond 

The flowery vale of Sibma, clad with vines, 

And Eleale, to the Asphaltic pool. Par. Lost, i. 408. 



276 



UNDULATIONS. 



Machaerus, where John the Baptist was beheaded. 
Southward of this lie Ataroih (Num. xxxii. 3), and 
Kirjathaim (Josh. xiii. 19), and Bibon (Josh. xiii. 17). 
and A roer (Num. xxxii. 34). While, farther still to the 
south, could the eye but reach it, there is a cleft in the 
mountains through which comes down the Arnon. 
Immediately under us, perhaps just where the shadow 
of yon cloud is resting, stood one of the cities of the 
plain ; and across that very breadth of water, perhaps 
where yon streak of silver is gleaming, David sent his 
father and mother, in the hour of danger, entrusting 
them to the guardianship of the king of Moab (1 Sam. 
xxii. 3, 4). 

For more than three hours, it has been a ride over a 
continuous series of heights and depressions, many of 
these, especially the latter, grassy and pleasant. Five 
or six times we have caught full gaze of the sea, as we 
mount the slopes or halt upon the hillocks ; as many 
times have w 7 e lost sight of it, as w T e move down into 
the valleys or hollows between. These glimpses of the 
Dead Sea through the hollows of the intervening hills, 
were exquisite, and I seem to see them still : each 
came like a meteor, shining out and then vanishing, or 
rather like a peculiar face, once perhaps seen in a 
crowd as w r e pass along, but too striking or too fair not 
to be remembered for ever. 

The road, though thus unequal, and in some places cir- 
cuitous, is not rocky nor precipitous ; this district seems 
to contain more depth of soil than some parts of the 



THE MARGIN OF THE LAKE. 



277 



south of J udah. Grass spreads over the sides and bottoms 
of the hills, and even the summits are not wholly 
bare ; though one looks in vain for anything like the 
rich green turf of meadow or mountain, such as are 
known in the north. Wild-flowers are shooting up in 
all directions ; the anemone, the cyclamen, and in still 
greater profusion, a yellow flower, like a small mari- 
gold, called cassia by some. This verdure continues all 
the way ; and even when at last we find ourselves in 
the plain of the Lake, which we had thought to be 
wholly barren, and " given to salt/' we see flowers, and 
shrubs, and reeds, down to the very margin of the 
waters.* These tall reeds, six feet high at least, wave 
softly in the noon-breeze which is coming over the sea 
and rippling its waters, and these bushes, some like 
oleanders, form low patches of brushwood, which relieve 
the sandy aspect of the plain, and take away the utter 
desolation which otherwise the scene would present. 
This northern end of the lake is not so waste and fear- 
ful as the southern, where the mountains of Usdum 
(Sodom) and the rocks of salt, frowning over the slug- 
gish, sullen sea, form a scene of indescribable barren 
ness and desolation. 

* Baumgarten speaks of "reeds and decayed trees" as covering the 
shore. Salignac mentions "trees growing here and there," but without 
fruit. Brochardus mentions the beautiful trees near Engedi on which grow 
the apples of Sodom, full of ashes. See further descriptions of the Sea in 
these old authors. The first of these seems to have had a most disagree- 
able journey along the margin Af the Sea, over holes and slime- pits, into 
which his mule fell ; with the addition of heavy showers. 



278 



APPKOACH TO THE SEA. 



The worst and wildest parts of the scene are doubt- 
less on the south and south-east. The description given 
by the few travellers who have visited that region, ex- 
hibits a horrid dreariness and marshy barrenness, which 
the north end of the Lake does not equal. Is it this 
eastern margin that is to be retained under Sodom's 
curse, as a memorial of sin to Israel, when all else is 
healed ; so that, standing upon the cliffs of Engedi, 
where all around shall be as Eden, they shall see afar 
the unhealed fens of El-Lisan, or Rabba, or Kerak ? 
" The miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall 
not be healed, they shall be given to salt," (Ezek. xlvii. 
11). The pillar of salt may have vanished ; but the salt 
mountains of Usdum shall still say, " Remember Lot's 
wife," and the marshes of Moab shall still cry, " Re- 
member Sodom." 

We approach the sea. The ground has in all direc- 
tions a crust of w x hite salt, in appearance somewhat like 
what we had seen in the desert at Ghurundel and Useit, 
only thicker and more plentiful. The shore is strewed 
with the debris of trees which Jordan in flood has 
brought down ; twigs, branches, and roots, lying along 
the beach, all of them well coated with salt. In different 
parts, the shore is deeply lined with a dark-brown 
substance, like well-pounded bark, which possibly may 
be the debris of leaves, or perhaps the seeds and flowers 
of the tall shaggy reeds which seem to grow plentifully 
around, and which a south-east wind would waft across 
the Lake, from the reed-jungles on the shore of Moab. 



THE SEA. 



279 



The waters look intensely blue, though as we near them 
there is a tinge of green perceptible. There is a slight 
curl over them at present, as a soft breeze has risen, 
and the ripples drop quietly at our feet, with a thick 
soapy or greasy froth, which leaves a stain upon the 
sand. The noon is hot, and besides, we have got down 
to a level, which makes a sort of tropical climate, as the 
lake is upwards of 1300 feet below the level of the 
Mediterranean. We are thirsty, and the water looks 
cool and tempting ; but we know its nature and refrain. 
Not so my little grey horse, which, though I suppose 
it has not been here for the first time, still seems 
ignorant of the lake's true character. As thirsty as 
ourselves and not so prudent, it rushes into the water 
and takes a draught ; one draught, no more. It shakes 
itself and turns away. We taste the water and find it 
nauseous in the extreme. It is not so much salt as 
acrid. Burning bitterness seems better to describe it 
than salt ; burning bitterness, which seizes on lips, and 
tongue, and palate, leaving for a considerable time the 
sense of prickliness and inflammation. A single drop 
will do this ; though, of course, the larger the mouthful 
the more intolerable the sensation. Whether, at night, 
the waters have the hue of absinthe, as some travellers 
have remarked, I cannot say. That they have the taste 
of absinthe by night and by day, I am sure. There is 
no unpleasant smell, nor any vapour arising from the 
water, save perhaps at the marshes on the beach. The 
eye sees almost no difference between this and any salt 



280 THE EASTERN AND WESTERN PRECIPICES. 



lake or arm of the sea. Standing on the shore, just 
at the head of the lake, we look down as far as the eyo 
can reach. We do not see the projecting point of 
land, which forms a striking feature of the lake, though 
unrepresented in old maps, and apparently unknown to 
any geographers beyond the present generation. Though 
the natives call it M-Lisan, or " the tongue/' it can 
hardly be the same as that called " the tongue of the 
Salt Sea " (Josh. xv. 2 ; xviii. 19), as it could not have 
formed the boundary either of Judah or Benjamin. 
On our left rise the hills of Moab, whose ravines have 
now become more visible, and which shew, here and 
there, patches of black and green. On the right rises 
the lower, but not less precipitous range, which flanks 
the western coast, forming about twenty miles down, the 
rocky nest of Ain Jidy* and ten miles farther, the 
castled peak of Fs-Sebbeh.f We look in vain to the 
right for the stone of Bohan the son Reuben (Josh, 
xviii. 17), which could not be far from the road along 
which we had descended to the sea. 

After wandering for a little along the salt-encrusted 
beach, and picking up some small pieces of flint strewed 
over it, we propose to bathe, each one choosing the spot 
he most fancies. I observe a curious peninsula, about 
one-fourth of the distance between us and what I sup- 
pose is the mouth of Jordan. J It may be about a quar- 

* Engedi. *f* Masada. 

X The modern maps of the Dead Sea differ nearly as much from one 
another as to the north shore, as the old ones as to the south. Judging 1 



lot's cairn. 



281 



ter of a mile in diameter, and is one vast heap of stones 
intermixed with branches, trunks of trees, all of them 
peeled and bleached. The stones are large, none of 
them less than a foot square, and many of them four 
times that size. They are not rounded, but their angles 
are all rubbed off by the chafing of the waves. A 
gifted traveller could easily find in this spot the ruins of 
Gomorrha, but I do not risk a conjecture, and know not 
whether it has a veritable name.* There are the remains 
of something like a wooden shed, and in any other lake 
or sea I should say that this is the resort of the fisher- 
men. But this cannot be. Perhaps the Bedawin here 
light their fires and keep watch. The stones are polished 
or rather glazed, and the wood coated with salt. At any 
slight rise of the lake, this peninsula must be a com- 
plete island. 

But under so hot a sun one feels the attraction of 
anything that looks like water ; so, without much delay, 
I plunge into the tempting element. I am soon afloat, 
and find all true that has been said as to the density of 
the waters. Striking out to some distance, I find my- 
self exposed to the breeze and the spray, which soon com- 
pel me to return, as it is impossible to keep the eyes 
open from the pain produced by the salt. The water has 

from the eye I should say that De Saulcy's is the most correct. Robinson, 
in the map to his last edition, seems to follow Lynch, who did not survey 
the north shore at all, but proceeded at once with the soundings of the 
sea itself. 

* Do Saulcy calls it Rejdm Lid, Lot's Cairn, vol. ii. p. 32. 



282 



THE DAY OF HEALING. 



an oily sensation ; yet after all, if you can keep it 
from mouth and eyes, the difference is not very per- 
ceptible between it and the ocean, save as to density 
and buoyancy. Some speak of the difficulty of sink- 
ing here ; I feel as much the difficulty of swimming. 
Not because there is a tendency to sink, but because 
the feet persist in getting above the surface, thereby 
throwing the head too low, and depriving the swimmer 
of his impelling power. In spite of spray and breeze, 
and salt and bitterness, I enjoy this plunge greatly, 
not being willing to quit the water even after a sw 7 im 
of some twenty minutes. Two birds like gulls are flying 
over my head all the time. Are they in quest of fish ? 
It would seem so. Yet probably they are mistaken, as 
no fish is said to be found in this lake of the dead, save 
what the J ordan in flood hurries down to it, to die. 
The day has not yet come when this sea and these 
waters round it, shall be healed by Ezekiel's river, — 

u These waters issue forth to the east border,* 
And they go down to the desert, (Heb. Arabah) 
And they go to the sea, — 
To the sea they are issuing forth, 
And healed shall be the waters. 
And it shall be that every living thing that moveth, 
(Whithersover the river shall come) 
Shall live ! 

* The word for border or oountry is Gelila, the same word as is used in 
Josh, xviii. 17, for a place in this neighbourhood, " It went forth to En- 
Shemesh, and went forth toward Geliloth, which is over against the going 
up of Adummim." 



SALT, HEAT, AND THIRST. 



283 



And there shall be a very great multitude of fish, 
Because these waters come thither, 
And they shall heal! 

And live shall every thing whither the river cometh." 

(Ezek. xlvii. 8, 9.) 

Coming out of the water we find ourselves thoroughly- 
pickled. The salt has encrusted our skin and powdered 
our hair like hoar-frost. We do not experience, how- 
ever, any very disagreeable sensations, though we are a 
little out of sorts with the coating of brine and bitu- 
men. But in two hours we hope to reach the Jordan 
and wash all this away. We are very thirsty, and there 
is no well at hand. We come up to our dragoman to see 
if he can help us. We find him lying lazily on the hot 
beach, keeping his horse standing, as a shade, between 
him and the sun. He has provided no water, and he 
seems to think that an orange will suffice till we reach 
J ordan. We do not think so, and are inclined to blame 
him ; but there is now no help. We can surely endure 
thirst for two hours, even on such sands and under such 
a sun. 

We now mount and move on to the pilgrim's bath- 
ing-place. The sheikhs are flourishing their spears and 
spurring their steeds to lead the way. One points to 
the place where J ordan pours itself into the lake, as if 
asking whether we wish to visit the sppt. We would 
fain do it ; but it is two or three miles off, and we have 
a long ride before us. So, after allowing him to conduct 
us a little way, and to shew us the hollow which con- 
tains the river, we turn round and press northwards. 



284 



THE GHOR. 



What a stretch of utter barrenness ! What a dreary 
plain of sand, unbroken by tree, or rock, or hillock ! 
And what a sun is this that is now beating down upon 
us, and doubling all its heat by reflection from this yel- 
low powder beneath us, into which our horses sink at 
every step, up to the fetlocks. But though the day is 
hot, the breeze is not at rest. We have felt it as it 
brushed the salt spray from the lake, we are now to feel 
it as it lifts the sand from the plain. It is evidently 
not taking the whole breadth of the Ghor, but moving 
in lines or stripes, which as they cross and cut each 
other, are tossing up the sand in wild eddies. We have 
noticed this already as we gazed on the plain from the 
height this morning, but now we see it close at hand, 
and by no means relish the idea of being swept round 
by one of these sandy whirlpools, which are rising and 
falling, moving from place to place all over the plain. 
The sand of the Sinaitic desert is in general not fine 
enough nor deep enough to play such " fantastic tricks/' 
But here it is like dust, and for many a mile it is, I 
suppose, some feet in depth. It seems rougher too, and 
more furrowed on the surface, so as to be more easily 
caught by the wind. We are looking to some spot, 
perhaps half a mile before us or at our side. The sand 
is smooth and^ the air is clear. In a moment a yellow 
cloud rises out of the ground, and, whirling round with 
immense velocity, assumes the form of a vast spiral 
column, which, after reaching a height of some sixty 



THE WHIRLWINDS OF THE GHOR. 



285 



feet, spreads itself out in air.* It does cot stand still 
for a moment, but rotating both round its own axis, and 
also round some centre which the breeze has chosen for 
it, it continues the smoky whirl for five or ten minutes, 
till, as the wind falls, the sand precipitates itself, or 
rather seems to dissolve in air. 

"As the whirlwind passeth, 
Even so the wicked is not ; 

But the righteous is built up for ever." (Prov. x. 25.) 

The " rolling thing before the whirlwind " (Isa. xvii. 
13), or " the stubble" which it sweeps away (Isa. xl. 
24), we do not see, for this arid champaign contains 
no thistle-down, nor stubble, nor brown leaf ; but the 
sand and dust, rushing on before the blast, we do see ; 
and it is worth the looking at. 

It was on this wide plain that Lot looked down from 
the heights above Ai, and saw that it was well-watered 
and fruitful, as the garden of the Lord (Gen. xiii. 10). 
But where are the richness and the beauty now ? It 
was across this plain that the thousands of Israel 
marched, with Joshua at their head, to take possession 
of the land. Over these plains the prophets, from their 
school at Jericho, had often strayed, musing on the 
same scene, as we are now doing. Along these sands, 
eastward to Jordan, the two prophet-friends walked in 

" The wind goeth towards the south, 
And turneth about unto the north, 
It whirleth about continually, 

Yea the wind returneth again upon its whirlings." (Eccles. i. 6) 



286 



INCREASING FRUITFULNESS. 



silent fellowship, in the day when the Lord announced 
that he " would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirl- 
wind'' (2 Kings ii. 1). Not that the ascension of the 
prophet was accomplished by some mere Jordanic sand- 
storm ; the whirlwind referred to in this event was 
certainly the same as that out of which J ehovah an- 
swered Job (Job. xxxviii. ]), and which Ezekiel saw 
encircling the mysterious glory of the Shekinah (Ezek. 
L 4) ; but the figure of the whirlwind seems singularly 
apt in the case of Elijah, seeing it was across this plain, 
where these are constantly occurring, that he was pro- 
ceeding to the spot where the chariot of fire was to 
receive him. 

As we move northwards, the sandy plain is ex- 
changed for a more broken and fertile region. There 
are now shrubs and flowers, and grass, in the hol- 
lows and along the dried water -courses. But the 
fertility here is not great, though it is a wonderful im- 
provement on the sandy barrenness over which we have 
been riding. Yet these empty channels have the pro- 
mise of fulness ; these hills, of richest pasture ; these 
mountains, of vines : — 

u It shall come to pass in that day, 
The mountains shall drop down new wine, 
And the hills shall flow with milk; 
And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, 
And a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord, 
And shall water the valley of Shittim." (Joel iii. 18). 

* There must have been a valley of Shittim, a vale of acacias, some- 
where on the plain of Jordan, to which the above passage makes refe- 



LOSING THE WAY. 



287 



Our party is beginning to straggle and separate. So 
long as we are on the level plain, this is of no conse- 
quence, as we can see each other ; but about three 
o'clock, when crossing one of these torrent beds, and 
passing through a sort of jungle, four of us linger 
behind, and lose sight of dragoman and sheikhs. Think- 
ing that our course must still be due north we press 
on, over the stony and uneven ground ; but we see no 
trace of our friends. Have we struck into the wrong 
path ? As we hesitate, we see clearly two ways before 
us, divided from ea'ch other by bare sandy hills, of no 
great height. We choose the right as the likelier, and 
give the reins to our horses, certain to overtake the 
party, as it is not ten minutes since we lost sight of 
them. But no one is visible. About a mile off, we 
see human forms ; but can they be our companions or 
guides ? More likely they are wandering Bedaween, 
who, if they find us alone, will not spare us. We are 
now in a small sandy plain, girt in, to the left, by a 
sweep of low hills, or hillocks, on one of which stands 
an old castle, apparently deserted, and in ruins. We 
know not its name, and no one is near to tell us. 
Which way shall we now turn ? The party is evidently 
not in front, else we must, ere this, have overtaken 
them. On which side are they ? This is our debate. 
As we debate, a long shining serpent makes its ap- 

rence. The " Shittim," or H Abel Shittim," of Num. xxv. 1; xxxiii. 
49 ; Micah vi. 5, was beyond Jordan, in the land of Moab, and takes its 
name, not from acacias, but from " the children of Sheth,' , (Num. xxiv. 
17), a nation named> along with Moab and Edom, as the enemy of Israel 



288 



EL MESHRAH. 



pearance, gliding over the sands. One of our number, 
leaping down from his horse, assails it with his whip, 
and at length kills it. We debate again. Which way 
shall we go ? Push straight on is our first purpose ; 
for, as in w T ar, so in travel, there are some mistakes 
which can only be rectified by persevering in them. 
But the wild Arabs in front make us hesitate. Right 
over these sandy hillocks to the left, say some of us ; 
for our party must be there, as that is the road which 
we ought to have kept, when we diverged to the right. 
Backwards, say the rest of us. Let us retrace our steps 
to the point whence we struck off, lest, if we attempt 
these unknown steeps we lose ourselves altogether. The 
latter counsel prevails. We turn our horses' heads, and 
move briskly southwards, hoping to catch somewhere a 
glimpse of the party, and thinking that our Arabs will 
be in search of us. Ere we have gone half a mile, we 
discover, to the left of us, among the thick jungle, Ali, 
our Jerusalem muleteer. He has been waiting for us, 
and immediately sets out before us as our guide. In 
less than ten minutes we find ourselves in the midst of 
our friends, on the woody banks of the Jordan, at the 
pilgrim's bathing-place, where, tradition says, Israel 
crossed the stream. The spot takes the name of El- 
Meshra. 

Here there is a shelving shore for about sixty yards, 
but everywhere else there are steep banks, overgrown 
with trees of every various kind, planes, willows ta- 
marisks, nubks, acacias ; but the palm and olive are 



JORDAN. 



289 



awanting. The river is turbid, as if the rains or melt- 
ing snows were still pouring themselves into it. It. is 
not red nor brown, like so many of our northern rivers 
in flood, but of a dull grey or dark leaden hue. It rolls 
rapidly, and is here perhaps a hundred feet across. We 
bathe, and find the refreshment great, after the salt of 
the Dead Sea, and the heat of the day's sun. The 
bottom of the stream here is soft with a dull coloured 
mud, in which we alternately slip, or sink up to the 
ancles. It is a deposit from the grey hills which line 
its eastern bank up to the Sea of Galilee. About twelve 
or fourteen feet from the bank, it is above our middle, 
and a few feet more would compel us to swim, and 
bring us into the rush of the stream. We would fain 
swim across that we might set foot on Reuben's ter- 
ritory, but the river is rapid, and we are not will- 
ing to run needless risks.* Yet here lay the territories of 
J acoVs eldest and his youngest son, adjoining each other, 
— that of Benjamin in which we are, and that of 
Reuben on which we are looking. -f- The pastures beyond 
these eastern hills were the fit resting place for a cattle- 
feeding people, and formed a spot of quiet security 

* Salignac, after mentioning the joy of washing both "soul and body" 
in Jordan, tells us of being damped by a calamity that befel the party. 
Their French physician when bathing was devoured by a crocodile or 
dragon, " captus crocodilo (draconem dicas an bestiam, incertum) ab- 
sorptus fuit." Some wild beast may have done this ; certainly not a croco- 
dile. Drowning, however, not devouring, is the fate of many a pilgrim. 

+ " The Lord hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye chil- 
dren of Reuben and children of Gad.'' (Josh. xxii. 25. 

T 



290 



REUBEN AND BENJAMIN. 



for a tribe that excelled in nothing, and has no name of 
renown in all its generations, save " Bohan the son of 
Reuben/' And here, close beside Reuben's flocks, with 
only Jordan between, roamed the wolf of Benjamin, 
sometimes prowling in these thickets, sometimes scour- 
ing these plains, sometimes climbing in yon western 
mountains of Bethel, whose summits, rising above the 
Jericho hills, we can barely recognise.* Here it was 
that in the morning he devoured the prey, and here it 
shall yet be that in the evening he shall divide the 
spoil. 

But we must now quit El-Meshra, and bid farewell 
to Jordan, till we meet it again nearer its source, less 
turbid in its flow. We have not moved ten yards when 
the river is hidden from our sight by its high banks 
and over shadowing jungle. Unlike the Nile, which is 
so fully visible on all sides, Jordan is seldom seen from 
any distance. Of its appearance from the range of hills 
upon its eastern side I cannot speak ; but looked at 
from the western heights, only the dark line of brush- 

* 1 1 Unstable/'* or swelliDg, and then vanishing, as this flood, which 
forms his boundary, Reuben has had no pre-eminence (Gen. xlix. 3,4). 
He " lived, and did not die ;" but his "men were few." (Deut. xxxiii. 
6). He sank gradually down in Israel, till he became but the ninth in 
tribal rank. Yet as the first-born he seems to have led the van when 
marching to the conquest of the land. u The children of Reuben and 
the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh passed over armed, 
before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them ; about forty 
thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle, to 
the plains of Jericho.'* (Josh. iv. 12, 13. 



JUNGLE ON THE BANKS. 



291 



wood, which marks its sinuous course, can be traced. 
It winds invisibly from lake to lake, and forms 200 miles 
of water out of 60 miles of land. 

Our course now lies east by north, as we mean to make 
direct for Er-Riha (Jericho), or rather for Ain Sultan 
(Elisha's fountain), which lies beyond it. Many a back- 
ward look we take of the scene just quitted, and of the 
grey hills rising above it. Is yon ravine, some miles to 
the north, Wady Keshan, up which, if we could go, some 
twenty miles, we should find ourselves on the site of old 
Heshbon, amid Amoritish, Jewish, and Roman ruins, 
and looking on the broken reservoirs, which perhaps 
once were " the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath- 
Habbim V' (Cant. vii. 4). We move onward through 
the brushwood, as this extends a considerable way, 
though the trees confine themselves to the margin of the 
stream. This outer and inner fringe of tree and jungle 
was in ancient times the resort of lions ; and out of it 
the overflow of the stream drove them, — 

Behold ! He shall come up, 

Like a lion from the swelling of Jordan, 

Against the habitation of the strong. 

(Jer. xlix. 19; 1. 44.) 

As we advance we feel that we are rising, and yet 
we seem to be crossing a level plain, which our two 
Sheikhs are scouring in all directions, brandishing their 
spears, and rushing in mock battle against each other. 
But the rise is a peculiar one. A succession of steppes 
or shelves from the Jordan, almost to Jericho, raises us. 



292 



FILLING UP OF THE BANKS. 



These form so many banks and channels ; and, as the 
river swells, in time of snow-melting, it first over- 
flows the one, then if the flood be a heavy one, it rises 
to the second or third bank, thus literally overflowing or 
"filling up" all its banks, (Josh. iii. 15). The whole 
plain through which we have been passing since we left 
the lake, seems to have been at times submerged. Yet 
as to the present overflow of the river there is some un- 
certainty, as no travellers seem to have visited it later 
than March or the beginning of April. The greater flood 
may be after that ; though it is quite possible that the 
actual "filling up" may be less extensive now, not because 
the snows of Anti-Libanus or the Hauran mountains 
have diminished, but because the stream itself, flowing 
over a muddy channel, has gradually dredged its bed, 
carrying down its mud and silt to the Dead Sea, and 
leaving a deeper bottom than in former ages. 

But where is Gilgal ? It must be somewhere on our 
present route, for it is in the east border of Jericho, 
(Josh. iv. 1 9). It has passed away, and not one of the 
twelve stones remain either here or in the river. And 
the city of Adam too has perished, (Josh. iii. 16) ; no 
trace of it is to be seen. And where is Zaretan, which 
w x as beside Adam (Josh. iii. 16) ; and was this soil " the 
clay-ground, in the plain of Jordan, between Succoth 
and Zarthan," where Solomon cast the vessels of the 
Sanctuary ? (1 Kings vii. 46). And where is " the stone 
of Bohan the son of Reuben" (Josh. xv. 6), the Ehren- 
breitstein of the Ghor ; the stone which marks the 



REEDS SHAKEN WITH THE WIND. 



293 



prowess of the son of J acol/s eldest born ? Old travellers 
speak of it, De Saulcy thinks he has found it ; yet we look 
in vain for it.* But we need not ask these questions. 
Every relic is gone of all these ancient places. Not a 
name nor a ruin bears witness to their former existence. 

The sun is fast declining, and its western radiance is 
adding softness to the scene. The air is clear and brac- 
ing, for the day's heavy heat has passed away, and a 
light breeze is wandering at will over the plain. The 
sensation of freshness and buoyancy forms a joyous con- 
trast to the lassitude produced by the fierce heat to which 
we have been exposed for hours. We are still far below 
the level of the Mediterranean, but the evening, as it falls 
around us, seems to bring with it the exhilaration of 
mountain air. And see these brakes of tall reeds, 
which we are passing ! How gracefully do they wave to 
the wind, and how brightly do their large bushy heads 
of yellow down, gleam in the sinking sunshine ! They 
are the reeds of the wilderness " shaken with the wind" 
(Matt. xi. 7). At no time could we have seen them to 
greater perfection, or realised from them more fully the 
meaning of these words of the Lord. The whole scene is 

* Felix Fabri, vol. ii. p. 82. De Saulcy, vol. ii. 50. Large and pecu- 
liar stones have all names. In the desert we found it so. There was 
Hajir-er-Rekab, and Hajir-el-Ful, and Hajir Musa. So it was in ancient 
days in Palestine (and I suppose still). But of the four stones mentioned 
in Scripture not one now is known. There were Eben Bohan ; Eben-Ezer, 
1 Sam. vii. 12 ; Eben-Ezel, 1 Sam. xx. 19 ; Eben Zoheleth, 1 Kings i. 9. 
The Rabbies had a book which they called Eben-Bohen, or the Touchstone. 
See Chronicles of Rall'i Joseph, translated by BiallollotzJcy, vol. i. p. 192. 



29i 



AIN-HAJLAH. 



exquisitely enjoyable, though perhaps no part of it can be 
called beautiful. The eastern hills of the El-Belka, 
(which embrace the mountains of old Ammon and Moab), 
the dark line that marks the J ordan, the broad plain of 
glittering sand, the gleam of the Dead Sea, with the 
mountain shadows darkening it, all these, as we stood 
still and looked around us, formed a picture of mingled 
solemnity and sweetness, peace and gloom, which im- 
prints itself not on the eye, but on the soul for ever. 

But now we approach a patch of jungle, trees and 
shrubs of various kinds covering the bottom and sides 
of a small hollow. We see a path close by these reeds 
which are shaking in the sun. We follow it down 
through the entangling branches, and in a few minutes 
find ourselves at the side of one of the clearest and finest 
wells that we have seen. It is circular in form, well 
built, and preserved with care, open on all sides, but 
shaded by the trees. The very look of it refreshes. 
What a resting-place at noon ! Our dragoman does 
not know the name. Is this Ain-Hajlah, and was the 
castle we saw in the afternoon Kasr Hajlah, the re- 
mains of the Beth-Hoglah of Benjamin ; a city on the 
border-line between Benjamin and Judah ? (Josh. xv. 
6, . . 18, 19, 21). 

Emerging from this thicket, and leaving this " eye 
of the desert" behind us, we continue our route. The 
sun is setting, and we have still some distance to tra- 
verse. The inequalities of the way are many, but not 
rugged ; still they are such as to cause mishaps in the 



ER-RIHA. 



295 



shape of stumbling and falling, to some of our party. 
Yet, though we shall have some incidents to talk over, 
or to laugh over, at night round our tent-table, we have 
had no adventures beyond those of passing through such 
scenes as we have done to-day. Seldom does one single 
day bring the traveller into contact with so many won- 
ders. The journey is quite an episode, and one of strik- 
ing interest. Nor is it yet done. 

We are approaching Jericho. But the shadows have 
fallen, and though the sky is clear, yet the dusky twi- 
light narrows the landscape, and hides even its near 
features. The valley of the Jordan is now shut out, 
and the Dead Sea has ceased to gleam in the distance. 
I know not whether on this spot, and in the stillness of 
the " gloaming/' we may hear the notes of St Saba's 
vesper-bell. I suppose not. We are too far north, and 
there are many intervening heights. And even though 
we had, it could not have fallen on our ears with the 
awe and the mystery which it is said to bring with it, 
as at midnight it passes over that solemn sea behind us, 
and dies upon the hills of Moab. 

There is no moon in the sky ; but the air is clear, and 
the stars are brightening, and the twilight has not 
yet passed wholly into night. We are at Jericho ; but 
the house of Zaccheus, of which pilgrims speak, is in- 
visible, or only recognised as a dark mass of building, 
which may be anything or nothing. We enter Jericho, 
or at least Riha, for old J ericho is not. The poor mud- 
huts of an Arab village, out of which the lights are 



296 



ORCHARDS OF ER-RIHA. 



twinkling as we pass, are all the memorials of th@ 
goodly city. We are, perhaps, moving over the walls 
that fell at Israel's summons, or over Rahab's house 
where the scarlet ribbon fluttered, or by the gate at 
which the blind men sat, at which our Lord so often 
entered. It may be so ; we know not. All has crumbled 
down. Nay, more. Is this really the site of Jericho, 
or is it farther westward, nearer the hills ? We do not 
know ; and so must pass on, content to say that this 
was part at least of the great plain where the city stood, 
and that the city itself could not be far off. 

Just as we have gone through the village, we hear 
voices and see lights and tents. We conclude that they 
are ours, and that we may dismount and tarry at Je- 
richo for a night. But we soon find that they belong to 
another party, just arrived from Jerusalem, who are re- 
versing our route, and taking Jericho first and Marsaba 
last. They are at dinner, so we do not intrude, but 
move on in the darkness. The land is evidently more 
fertile, trees and bushes on every side. Our road seems 
to lie through gardens and vineyards ; and these trees 
are possibly figs, or other such fruit-trees. One thing 
we know about them ; they are not palms. With its 
feathers spread out against the blue sky, the palm makes 
itself known at night as well as at noon. But it is 
not here. Riha is not the city of the palm-trees. We 
shall see on the morrow, if these are to be found any- 
where around. We hear now the low murmur of waters, 
and know that we are on the banks of the rivulet that 



AlN-SULTAN. 



297 



pours itself from the fountain of Elisha. A hoarse noise 
now comes up from the low ground at our side. The 
frogs of Eiha are all awake, and the croaking of myriads 
salutes us. We should have preferred the voice of the 
" night-warbling bird/' tuning its " love-laboured song \ 9 
but we must be content. Yet the hoarseness is not 
pleasant, and grates sorely on the ear, especially in such 
a place, and at such an hour, when stillness would have 
been a peculiar boon to those who had so many memo- 
ries to gather up ; from the days of Joshua, down 
through those of Hiel and Elisha, to the time of Zac- 
cheus, and the Lord himself. 

After riding nearly half an hour further, by a wind- 
ing and intricate road, still apparently through orchards 
in some parts, we reach our tents, a little after seven. 
They are pitched amid a vast grove of trees, hard by 
Ain-Sultdn, the royal fountain, or as Christians have 
named it, the fountain of Elisha. The day has been a 
memorable one, and the contrast between the different 
scenes, more marked than during any day of all our pre- 
vious route. We began with the wild ravines of Mar- 
saba, the haunts of doubtful saints, and we have ended 
with the pleasant grove and murmuring waters of J e- 
richo, — the resort of one of the mightiest of Israel's un- 
ambiguous prophets. We have traversed the grassy 
knolls of Judah ; descended to the sullen sea, on which 
the marks of the old judgment still lie ; passed over as 
dreary a waste of sand as Debbet Ramlah or Wady 
Wardan ; enjoyed the fresh rush of Jordan, and the 



298 



VIEW OF THE PLAIN OF JERICHO. 



shade of its wooded margin ; wandered over an undu- 
lating region of sand, and soil, and shrubs, and flowers ; 
gone through one of the poorest and filthiest of eastern 
villages ; and now we are encamped in an oasis richer, 
save in palms and tarfas, than Ghurandel and Feiran. 

A in-Sultdn, Thursday, March 6. — Rose at six, and 
went out for a morning ramble in the plains of Jericho. 
There had been some rain during the night ; but 
no sign of this remained, save a few clouds and a slight 
dulness in the air. A hundred yards or so from our 
tents I found an eminence which promised to raise me 
above the thicket which surrounded us, and give me a 
view of the ground over which we had passed yesterday 
in the twilight. I would fain have climbed some of the 
rocky heights above us, in which I see caves and ruins ; 
but that would require another day. Not that I de- 
sired to ascend the Quarantina mountain, where, 
tradition says, our Lord spent the forty days of his 
fasting. In this case, tradition builds on no evidence, 
and one is not inclined to undergo the toil and danger 
of its ascent, in compliance with a sixth century fable. 

The height, on which I soon found myself, was suffi- 
cient for my purpose. It shewed me the whole stretch 
of plain, both south and east. The Dead Sea, with its 
bare precipices on the one side, and high mountains on 
the other, lay on the right, like a great cauldron of 
gleaming quicksilver. The wide plain which we had 
traversed yesterday, and which we had so often looked 
on from the Mount of Olives, stretched in front ; that 



ANCIENT JERICHO. 



299 



part nearest Jordan a sandy waste, that nearest to 
us a tangled "bush" of shrubs and trees. Jordan 
was invisible, from the lowness of its channel. Riha, 
with its huts of mud and fences of dry thorn, was 
not far off. This spot, or at least the neighbourhood, 
seemed likelier to be the ancient Jericho.* It is close 
by the fountain, and it is just at the foot of the hill, and 
thus answers better to the descriptions both of the 
Bible and Josephus. It was the city of palm-trees ; 
but the eye searches in vain for a single palm in all 
this region. This is the more remarkable, because this 
is quite a climate for such tropical trees. We had 
noticed, however, in the desert that the palm loves the 
salt spring, and takes kindly to the soil and air impreg- 
nated with salt, as in Howarah, Ghurandel, and Useit. 
Here, however, there is nothing of this kind ; for the 
bituminous exhalations from the Dead Sea, driving 
along the plain before the south wind, could not com- 

* The Jericho of the Roman age must have been nearer the mountains 
than the huts of Er-Riha are ; for Strabo tells us that it was girdled with 
mountains like a theatre (Geogr. B. 16, 41. He also notices its palms). 
Jerome states that there were three Jerichos : — (1) That destroyed by- 
Joshua ; (2 ) that rebuilt by Hiel (or Gram, as he calls him), which existed 
in the time of our Lord, but was afterwards destroyed by the Romans — 
"propter perfidiam civium" — about the time of the siege of Jerusalem ; 
(3.) that which was built after this, and existed in his day. The three 
cities must have occupied three different sites, for he speaks of the ruins 
of the two former being visible in his day ; and in giving the site of Gilgal, 
he speaks of it as east of "the ancient Jericho," Onom. Galgala. It may 
be suggested either that Jericho was farther south than Er-Riha, or that 
the Bead Sea once came farther north ; for Eusebius and Jerome say that 
Jericho and Zoar were the two limits of that sea. 



300 



THE STREAM. 



pensate for the genuine sea or the salt-spring. But, 
then, in early ages the springs here were marah, as the 
prophet's miracle reminds us. " The water is naught" 
(2 Kings, ii. 19); or, literally, "the waters are bad/' 
These " bad" waters, however, may have nourished the 
palms, and the removal of the evil may have led to 
their gradual decay. 

Coming down from the height, I went to the stream 
to enjoy a walk along its banks — 

" To let the eare 
Drinke the eomplcoyning storie of the tide," — 

and to recall the age of Joshua and Elisha, as well as 
to wonder whither had fled all the fruitfulness of nature 
and the magnificence of art, which, in later days, clus- 
tered round this tiny rill, as if it had been a Tiber or a 
Nile. It is a veritable stream, or at least rivulet, about 
eight feet broad and half a foot deep, flowing smoothly 
downward, without a break or whirl, clear and sunny. 
Its banks are soft and fresh, with weed and flower, and 
grassy turf, lined with nature's leafy trellice-work of 
shrub and tree. There is fragrance, too, coming up 
from the daisy, the lily, and the mint, which grow 
plentifully around. The trees are various ; but the 
most common is the nubk. There is the Zukkum, a 
well-sized thorny tree, with a small leaf and a green 
fruit, like a potato-apple, out of which oil is extracted. 
There is also a large shrub or inferior tree, with yellow 
fruit, like small oranges. This fruit the natives call 
Tuffah-el-Mejdnin — that is, the mud-apples — because 



THE TOWER AND THE SPRING. 



301 



they are said to make all who eat them mad. This 
name, however, I found was not confined to this tree ; 
for they call the mandrake plant, which grew in diffe- 
rent parts of the country, and especially round Jerusa- 
lem, by the same name. Donkeys and sheep, however, 
eat these mad apples, it would seem, without losing 
their reason. 

After this I wandered up the stream, observing, in 
several parts of it, very small fresh-water shells, with 
their tenants all alive within. I came to an old ruin, 
quite buried among nettles, shrubs, and overhanging 
boughs of trees. It was a small oblong structure, quite 
decayed, but may once have formed part of a tower or 
castle. The situation was just one to invite such a 
building, whether for husbandry or pastoral purposes. 
It is placed too low to be a castle, and it is too well 
built to be " a lodge in a garden of cucumbers," though 
such gardens exist around. But may it not be the 
remains of some of King Uzziah/s handiwork, as noticed 
in his history : — " Also he built towers in the desert, 
and digged many wells ; for he had much cattle, both 
in the low country and in the plains," (2 Chron. xxvi. 
10). I proceeded onwards to the spot where the foun- 
tain wells up strongly and freshly at the foot of a rock, 
forming a tolerably large basin, out of which it slowly 
finds its way to the channel of the stream, which, flow- 
ing onward through the verdure and jungle I have 
described, proceeds to Er-Biha, carrying fruitfulness 
and beauty for miles, till it loses itself in the sands of 



302 



THE FIG-TKEE. 



the plain, — too feeble to succeed in reaching Jordan. 
The bottom of the basin is mingled sand and pebble, 
up through which the water bubbles, and over which it 
spreads itself, as pure and fresh a fountain of " living 
water " as one could light upon, either in the west or 
east. In our island, "living" (that is "running") 
waters are so common, that they cease to be prized. 
But in these hot lands, where for so many months men 
are dependent on the hoarded rain-water of the tank or 
cistern, a stream of living water, fed from such a foun- 
tain, and perennial as the rock out of which it gushes, 
is a luxury which must be set down as God's special 
blessing. Hard by the brink, and throwing its branches 
over the basin, was a fig-tree of good size. Every bough 
was loaded with small green figs, as large as gooseberries ; 
spring was already far advanced in the low region of 
the Ghor, though it seemed little more than begun in 
the high lands around Jerusalem. A few days before, 
we had been at Bethany and not a fig-tree had begun 
to swell ; but here the figs are already formed. The 
climate must be three weeks or a month earlier here. 
One is struck, too, with the figs bursting forth, ere a 
leaf is seen, and without any blossom. We had seen 
the almond putting forth its blossoms ere a leaf-bud 
had swollen ; but here is the fig giving out its figs 
without blossom or leaf. Its branch is not yet " tender," 
and it is not yet putting forth leaves (Matt. xxiv. 32), 
for as yet it is only spring ; but in a few weeks, or less, 
the branch will swell and the leaf come forth, to shade 



THE HEALED WATERS. 



303 



the fruit from excess of heat; then it is known that 
" summer is nigh/' 

This is certainly one of the fairest spots that we have 
seen, yet within view of the dreariest landscape that 
Palestine, or even the Desert, can shew. Ain-SuMn, 
the royal fountain, how true the name ! One draught 
more of your heaven-healed waters, one dip more of 
hand and lip into your coolness, one look back upon 
your beauty, then farewell ! It was all true that was 
said two thousand seven hundred years ago, " Thus 
saith the Lord, I have healed these waters ; there shall 
not be from thence (that is, issuing from thee) any more 
death or barren land ; so the waters were healed unto 
this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he 
spake" (2 Kings ii. 21, 22). 

At half-past eight we started. When Elisha left 
this, after he had healed the waters, he " WENT UP to 
Bethel" (2 Kings ii. 23), for Bethel lies on the heights, 
upwards of twenty miles from this. And it was as he 
was passing up the mountain-road that the young men 
came forth to u mock" him and to taunt him with his 
own infirmity, and with the ascension of his master. 
His road lay in a north-westerly direction, ours in a 
south-westerly, though still we, like him, were " going 
up/' for our paths lay through the defiles of the same 
range. As we passed along we saw ruins, with pointed 
arches and many indications of former strength and 
elegance. We do not visit the fountain of Duk, said to 
be nearly as fine as Ain-Sultan, and doubtless identify- 



THE CUCKOO. 



ing this neighbourhood with the old castle of Dok or 
Dagon, famous for the murder of Simon (Maccabaeus) 
by his son-in-law Ptolemy. Taking the road which 
winds up the hill, we passed through brushwood for 
some way, and could still notice the large Zucchum 
here and there. As we ascended the view of the plain 
once more opened upon us, J ericho, Jordan, the Dead 
Sea, and hills of Moab. There was much that was rich 
immediately under us, for wherever Elisha's fountain 
poured its waters, there verdure was seen rising ; and 
the barrenness of the more distant plain is not to be for 
ever. What the healed waters of the fountain have 
done for this neighbourhood, shall yet be done for this 
wilderness, and for the shores of yon sea, (Ezek. xlviii. 
6-12). 

We soon struck into a deep ravine ; but the road lay 
not at the foot, but a considerable way up its southern 
flank. We noticed water at the bottom and a tolerable 
amount of verdure.* The note of the cuckoo came, like 
a " wandering voice/' across the glen, though there 

* To this the reference may be in Josh. xv. 7, when describing Judah's 
border-line as going up to Adummim by "the south side of the river." 
That line began at the north end of the Dead Sea, where it forms an 
angle with Jordan ; then it passed to Beth HogJah, then by the north 
of Beth-Arabah (a town, from its name I suppose, standing on the edge 
of this Judean desert) ; then it went up to the stone of Bohan, then towards 
Debir from the valley of Achor ; then it went a little in a northerly direc- 
tion till Gilgal was seen, due east (before, i. e., east) of the going up of 
Adummim ; then passing Enshemesh, it came down from the hills, and 
terminated at Enrogel. 



ROAD FROM JERUSALEM TO JERICHO. 305 

seemed no woods, in which this " stranger of the grove/ 
this " messenger of spring/' could find a place for rest 
or song. We rode on through most romantic ravines, 
with flowers scattering themselves on the slopes and 
hollows, for several hours. It was the way which the 
Son of God had so often traversed, when he came and 
went between Jericho and Bethany. He had passed 
over these heights ; he had seen all that we are now 
seeing, and heard all that we are now hearing. 

The road forms a continuous descent from J erusalem to 
Jericho, and to this the expression may refer, " a certain 
man went dovm from Jerusalem to Jericho 93 (Luke x. 
30), and somewhere in these rugged and lonely glens 
the man " fell among thieves/' The road would seem 
to have been in these days frequented by robbers, and 
many travellers, in different ages, have written of it, 
as still a place of peril and a haunt of evil-doers. An 
English traveller in 1506 writes, "from thence we held 
the right way from Jherusalem to Jherico, and that is 
the way of which it is sayde in the gospell, a certain man 
went down from Jherusalem to Jherico ; and yet unto 
this day it is a right perillous way"* And an older 
traveller than this, in 1483, speaks of this at greater 
length. I translate a few sentences. When descending 
the cliffs " we heard shouts and angry voices, in the Ara- 
bic and Teutonic tongue. We heard some one shouting 
robbery in Teutonic words, mordjo, mordjo." Hasten- 

' The Pylgrymage of Syr H. Guylforde, Knight, fo. xxx. 

U 



306 



ADUMMUM. 



tening down he found it was a battle of words and stones, 
between some of bis fellow-pilgrims and some robbers 
wbo were demanding money. After detailing at length 
the quarrel and its settlement, he proceeds, " We came 
to the ascent of the hills, which we called the heights 
of the desert of Adammim. For here there was once a 
town, whose ruins we saw, by name Adammim, that is 
the ascent of the red ones, on account of the blood 
which was frequently shed there by robbers ; and from 
that castle that whole desert from Jericho up to Beth- 
any is called Adammim, and it was for the succour of 
travellers in this sanguinary and cruel place that the 
castle was built. See Josh, xviii. 17. Hence to this 
day the Germans call this castle and desert Botbach, 
the river of blood. For the poor Arabs lurk here by 
the way, and plunder the passers by, nor dare even the 
Saracens, unless in bands, travel here. Our guides 
were constantly urging us to make haste when going up 
through the desert of Adammim/'* We got something 
to note, in confirmation of these old stories. One of 
the ladies in our company happened to linger a little 
way behind, at a part of the road where a sharp shoul- 
der of the hill quickly hid her from the rest of the party. 
In a moment two Bedaween issued from a hollow by the 
way-side, who, taking hold of her donkey's bridle, tried 
to lead it aside into the recess out of which they had 
come. Knowing a little Arabic, she spoke to them and 

* Fabri Evagatorium, &c, vol. ii. p. 78. 



IS WADY KELT CHERITH ? 



807 



threatened them, but they insisted that she was going 
wrong, and that they were leading her right. Her don- 
key boy too, seemed in a moment to become their con- 
federate, and urged her and the donkey off the road. 
She shouted, but the projecting angle of the hill pre- 
vented her being seen or heard. The fellows were pro- 
ceeding to force, and would have carried her off to their 
mountain retreat, had not Mr Wright, who had been 
detained a little by the way, providentially came up. 
The Bedaween fled when he approached. But the in- 
cident was a curious corroboration of old testimonies, 
and an illustration of the parable already referred to, — 
giving us one proof more, among the many, that our 
Lord's parables are not only most true to nature, but 
have actually some well-known fact as their basis. 

By many this wady is held to be the Cherith, where 
Elijah took refuge in the day of draught. But even 
though the name (Kelt) could be identified with Cherith, 
which is hard to be believed, the narrative seems to bear 
against this identification. The stream of Wady Kelt 
is but a winter or spring brook, and would have been 
one of the first to dry up, whereas, it is plain, that the 
Cherith continued for at least a year to supply him 
with water. And when it did become dry, Jordan was 
at hand, within a walk of three or four hours, to give 
him drink, and prevent his being compelled (as is im- 
plied that he was) to quit his retreat. Besides the 
words of the narrative are express, " Get thee hence, 
and turn thee eastward " (1 Kings xvii. 3). Had this 



308 



CHERITII IN GILEAD. 



been said to a prophet living in J erusalem or in Bethel, 
then Wady Kelt might have been the hiding place. 
But Elijah must have been either at Samaria or Jezreel, 
most probably the former, for Ahab was there. It was 
from Samaria or Jezreel that Elijah was to turn east- 
ward, and thus he would not turn in the direction of 
Jericho at all, which lay quite to the south. And then 
the expression, twice repeated, " the brook Cherith 
which is before Jordan," is no less decisive. For the 
Hebrew term here used, when employed geographically, 
invariably denotes the east, not merely towards or be- 
fore. Indeed, we can attach but little meaning to the 
expression before a river, even though before a moun- 
tain or a city might be intelligible. What, for instance, 
could be understood by " before the Nile/' or "before 
the Euphrates?" Whereas eastward or w T estw r ard has 
an obvious meaning. In going eastward of Jordan from 
Samaria, Elijah was going to a much safer place than 
Wady Kelt, so near Jerusalem on the one hand and 
Jericho on the other. He was going to the very borders 
of the land of Israel, if not across the boundary alto- 
gether. He was going to no unknown region, but to 
his native country, the mountains of Gilead ; and 
somewhere amid their untrodden glens, and by the side 
of one of their well-fed brooks, perhaps by the sources 
of the Jabbok, he took up his abode, after he had 
uttered the words of awful judgment ; like a thunder- 
bolt returning to the cloud from which it had issued. 
About one, we halted for a few minutes by a well or 



EN-SHEMESH. 



309 



cistern, at the foot of a steep ascent. It is called, 
ecclesiastically, the Fountain of the Apostles ; but may it 
not be the waters of En-Shemesh mentioned in the boun- 
dary line of Judah ? (J osh. xv. 7). This road has been 
from the earliest ages the great highway, not only be- 
tween J erusalem and Jericho, but between J erusalem 
and the trans-Jordanic territories. It was the road 
which David took when flying from Absalom ; for if 
you drew a line from Olivet to the fords of J ordan, it 
will pass near this (2 Sam. xv. 30 ; xvi. 1), so that we 
must have been passing Adummim, Bahurim, and are 
now at Enshemesh. 

We did not dismount, but after the refreshment of a 
draught from this Fountain of the Apostles, we moved 
slowly up the hill over a road rough with stones, and in 
some places cut out of the rock.* It was a toilsome 
ascent. But the Son of God had been here before us, 
toiling up the same steep, and " drinking of the brook 
by the way/' 

About half past one, at the top of the ascent, we 
abruptly came in sight of Bethany, resting apparently 
on the crest of the opposite height, yet in a hollow at 
the foot of the higher ridge of Olivet that rises behind. 
This view of the village is remarkably beautiful, — the 
best that we have seen of it. Often must the Lord have 

* "Descending a steep hill," says one travelling in the opposite direc- 
tion, " we came to a well called the Fountain of the Apostles, because 
here, according to tradition, they used to drink and refresh themselves in 
their passage between this and Jericho." — Travels of Charles Thomson, 
Esq, (1744) vol. ii.p 141. 



310 



VIEW OF JERUSALEM. 



stood where we did, looking across the hollow, upon 
the lowly village, longing to rest under the loving roof 
of Lazarus, after a hot day's heavy journey. We soon 
reached Bethany, and passed through it, amid the star- 
ing of villagers and the noise of dogs. It looked well 
from the distant height, with its olives, figs, and blos- 
soming almonds ; but within all was filth and confusion. 
Passing on, we began to descend the Mount of Olives, 
and, at a sudden turn, Jerusalem burst upon our sight ; 
as fair a vision of an earthly city as the eye can look 
upon. Here it might be that the Son of God looked 
and wept. " When he beheld (or came in sight of) the 
city he wept over it/' Bending to the right, and going 
down into a hollow, we lost the view, till another turn 
brought it fully before us. Then slowly winding round 
and descending the western side of the hill, we came to 
the valley of Jehoshaphat, startling a turtledove from 
an olive-tree at our side, but meeting with no one till 
we ascended the slope at St Stephen's gate, a little after 
two o'clock. 

I found that in travelling through these scenes I could 
not read. I could look, and feel, and think, or rather 
muse, but I could not read. Not in the desert, nor in 
Palestine, could I sit down even to the careless reading 
of a single book. My senses had too much to engross 
them in the objects around to allow themselves to be 
employed in a work which could be done at home. The 
life that one thus leads in travelling here is almost 
wholly an objective one, and the eye is turned outward, 



LOOKING NOT READING. 



311 



away from self, and the throng of thoughts connected 
with self, which pour in at home. I had taken but few 
books with me ; but even these few I found too many. 
I scarcely opened them. I awoke in the morning to look ; 
I moved along through the hot hours of day, looking ; 
and I got early to rest at night to fit myself for looking 
again. Something of this kind Solomon had known 
when he said, " the eyes of men are never satisfied/' 
(Prov. xxvii. 20). 



CHAPTER XI. 



HILLS OF ASHES — QUARRIES — TOMBS OF KINGS RAIN — LAST SABBATH IN 

JERUSALEM — GETHSEMANE. 

Jerusalem, Friday, March 7. — Went out about seven 
by the Jaffa gate. The morning was rather cloudy, but 
not without sunshine. The scenery all round remark- 
ably clear and vivid, the Mount of Olives especially. A 
shepherd came along leading his flock,, they following 
him without any care or trouble on his part. They 
knew both himself and his voice.* 

I went again to the hills of ashes, examining them 
and digging up some handfulls to carry home. There 
seemed to be no fresh accumulations anywhere, nor did 
they seem to be used at present as a place for deposit- 
ing rubbish, as the name given to them in Tobler's map 
would imply. 

The forenoon was occupied with letters and busi- 

Either on this or some previous morning (I forget the day), when 
passing up beyond the south-western angle of the wall, I saw workmen 
engaged in felling a noble tree (a terebinth I think, but I am not sure, as 
it was leafless), in order to make room for some wall that was to be built. 
" Woodman, spare that tree," I would have said to them, for the destruc- 
tion of such an old tree seemed like sacrilege. 



MUGHARET EL-KOTTON. 



313 



ness.* At two o'clock we proceeded to the great quar- 
ries under the city, along with an American party ; and 
of course a guide. t Bundling up some old clothes, 
kindly lent us for the occasion, to throw over our own 
apparel, we proceeded through the city to the Damascus 
gate, looking like soldiers with their knapsacks slung 
over their shoulders, or rather like the Gibeonites with 
their clouted garments. 

Turning to the right when we reached the gate, and 

* I ought before this to have mentioned the name of Mr Roberts, 
American, whom I met more than once, and who, unconnected with any 
Society, is labouring here in faith, distributing Bibles among the men of 
ail nations, and meeting with many a kindly welcome and friendly response, 
where one could hardly have expected it. He is constantly going about 
the streets with his Bibles, saluting in his own solemn but kindly way all 
whom he meets. He is doing a good work. 

+ The native name for the place is Mugharet el-Kotton, or cotton-cave. 
As our word cotton is Arabic, and corresponds to the " fine linen" of the 
Old Testament, there may have been some tradition as to this being 
a depositary for the fine linen of Egypt. I ought to notice that Tasso 
refers to this cave. Jerusalem Delivered, b. x. canto 29, &c. The wizard 
undertakes to conduct the " Sol dan," through the besieging army of God- 
frey, into the heart of the city. As Godfrey occupied at first the north- 
west suburb and afterwards the south, (Mill's Hist, of the Crusades, vol. 
i. p. 247 ; Lahore's Godfrede, &c, p. 418,) it is not easy to discover the 
place where the wizard finds the entrance. It seems to have been some 
south-west spot that is meant, for Ismen leads him to Zion, from which 
descending to the left, he finds the mouth of the cavern, covered with 
shrubs, &c. 

Cava grotta s' apria nel dure- sasso, 
Di lunghissimi tempi avanti fatta 
Ma disusando, &c. 

This is called a " via furtiva," leading from the tower Antonio into the 
Temple. The description can hardly apply to the substructures of the 
Temple, but very exactly to the Mugharet el-Koitom 



314 



ENTRANCE INTO THE CAVE. 



going a few minutes along the wall (some 1 50 yards), 
we saw a hole not two feet in diameter, on a level with 
the ground. It was not cut in the rock but through 
the w^all, very slightly sloping downwards towards the 
interior. How or when such a hole in a broad wall has 
been made, one wonders. It may have been left at 
first as a sort of secret door into recesses with which it 
was desirable, either for the purpose of refuge or con- 
cealment of treasure, to maintain a communication. 
At this place, I suspect, there must have been originally 
several openings into the quarries, as the levellings be- 
tween this and Jeremiah's grotto seem here to have cut 
into the more elevated levels of the excavated parts, 
leaving apertures like the mouths of caves of consider- 
able size, which were afterwards walled up. It is in 
front of these apertures that the present city-wall runs, 
closing them tightly up, with only the small bore al- 
ready mentioned for an entrance. 

Having donned the "old clothes" which we brought 
with us, we examine the entrance. It seems only made 
for a serpent or a jackal, not for one of the family of 
Adam. Shall we enter with head or feet foremost ? 
We decide on the latter. Very wisely, too, as we soon 
found. Lying down on the ground, we inserted our 
feet and legs ; then, gradually pushing our persons 
through, by means of our hands, we found that there 
was a sudden fall of some five feet to the first level. To 
this upper shelf we dropped our bodies in succession, 
and commenced lighting candles, torches, and wax- 



LEVELLINGS. 



315 



lights. That part of the roof immediately above the 
entrance, was not very high ; but it seemed to be solid 
rock. The five feet of perpendicular height down which 
we had dropped, holding by the hands, was the rough 
interior of the city-wall, built, as I have already said, 
across the mouth of the chamber laid open by the ver- 
tical cutting into the quarry. At the side of this 
chamber there seemed to be another ; at least, I ob- 
served the rock coming down, and forming a sort of 
division between the place on which we stood, and an- 
other immediately adjoining, in which I noticed a 
chink, through which the light was gleaming. 

The shelf of rock on which we were standing is 
evidently much higher than the other parts of the 
quarry ; for we see a sloping descent before us, down 
which we are to go. This recess, then, was the upper 
part of the excavated hill, — for hill it clearly was. Be- 
tween this and Jeremiah's grotto had risen the highest 
part of the hill, which in all probability was scooped 
out subterraneously, in the same way as the present 
quarry, so that the levelling process of the Asmoneans 
was perhaps not so very laborious. The mass of rock 
forming the roof of the chamber where we are stand- 
ing, has been left for some purpose ; perhaps because, 
had ffhey cut it down any lower, the whole depth of 
the quarry would have been laid open, requiring, in 
that case, either to be filled up or bridged over. It 
was easier to wall up a vertical section of a dozen of 
yards than to bridge over a horizontal one of four 



316 



HEIGHT OF AERA. 



times that ; and accordingly the levellings stopped 
here. 

The height of the hill between this and Jeremiah's 
grotto, we have no means of ascertaining. It may have 
been very considerable ; and if so, it would overlook 
the whole city, and' especially the temple, which was 
not far off, and directly below. This levelled hill, in its 
original state, must have formed the side of the valley 
which runs up from the Damascus gate. Of this 
depression, De Saulcy says, " any one who has seen 
Jerusalem, knows how deeply hollow the passage is 
leading forth from the very threshold of this gate/'* 
If this depression be so visible even now, when so much 
filled up with earth, as it is, and when one of its highest 
flanks has been levelled, what must it have been in 
earlier daj r s, when this now levelled hill rose upon its 
northern side, to a height nearly equal to that of 
Sion itself? This hill, whatever it was, must have 
presented one of the most prominent objects to one 
coming from the south. It formed, very probably, the 
termination of the plain of Rephaim ; for it is quite 
evident that this plain or valley extended considerably 
north of the upper part of what is now called Gihon, 
so as actually to be said, by Eusebius, to lie north of 
the city. 

We now, torches in hand, went down the slope, which 

* Narrative, &c, vol. ii. p. 281. Dr Robinson, also, states that "the 
most marked valley of the city" is that which extends southwards from 
the Damascus gate to Siloam, vol. iii. p. 207. 



THE EXCAVATIONS. 



317 



was apparently composed of hardened debris (the re- 
mains of the dressings of the stones), covered with fine 
dry dust. The width of this part is considerable, but 
its height not great ; but one is afraid to guess at 
either ; and it is not easy to measure them. At the 
foot of this descent several immense chambers are 
visible in all directions. We visited them all, and then 
passed on to others beyond, and again to others beyond 
these. Between these different compartments, the rock 
came down to the ground ; or rather, as in coal-mines, 
huge blocks, like vast but shapeless pillars, had been 
left to sustain the mass above.* For upwards of two 
hours we groped about in these strange recesses, the 
chief inconvenience being the heat. Yet, hot as the 
air was, there was no unpleasant smell or dampness. 
All was fresh and &.vy. 

The excavations here are totally different from those 
at Akeldama or the tombs of the Judges. You see at 
once the object in view by the excavations. Large 
niches there are here no doubt ; but their rough facings 
and edges tell you that it was the piece cut out that 
was the thing of value, not the recess left behind as 
in the case of the tombs. The size too of these hori- 
zontal cuttings is so great, as to shew that they 
were not meant for tombs. The spaces left correspond 
so exactly to the measurements of the immense stones, 
which are seen in different parts of the south-eastern 

* See the statement in the Athenceum for May 1856, p. 554. Also, Dr 
Stewart's description in his (< Tent and Khan," p. 264. 



318 



TEMPLE STONES. 



angle of the city wall, that the object of the quarrying 
is quite obvious. And it is the size of the stones that 
makes it so probable that they were used in the build- 
ing of the temple, and not, as some have conjectured, in 
erecting the later town of Bezetha.* It is said that 
these excavations extend to Moriah and to Gethsemane, 
and that there was a vertical aperture at or near Mo- 
riah, through which the stones were lifted up to the 
temple, and set in their places, without noise of axe or 
hammer. Only underneath, was the sound of the 
hammer heard. Hewn and polished here, they rose up, 
without noise, to their appointed place above. But I 
do not vouch for this tradition of the aperture. It may 
or it may not be correct. The quarrying and rough- 
hewing of the temple stones might go on here in the 
darkness ; but the polishing and fitting, done with 
such marvellous exactness and care, would require the 
light of day. 

The small fountain in one of the recesses is poor 
enough ; and if it were no better in former days than 
now, it could not have been of much service to the 
workmen. There was a little water in it ; but it did 
not seem very pure. In several places the diggings had 
obviously been much deeper than they now appear, as 
the rubbish fills up several of the hollows. That rub- 
bish was of different kinds. In some places it was 
small as common gravel. In other places it was piled 

* According to what I believe to be the true topography of the city, 
the quarry is under Akra, not under Bezetha. 



DEN OF THE WOLF OF BENJAMIN. 



319 



up in considerable fragments, apparently the refuse oi 
the first rough dressing of the stones. In other places 
the fragments were much larger. The debris lay in all 
manner of shapes ; here in small heaps, there in large 
mounds, there in the form of pavement ; here in bars, 
there in blocks or square boulders, there in slices, there 
in nodules, there in crumbs. Every part of this great 
marble mine was different from the other. All was 
irregular, — size, shape, position, elevation. There was 
no apparent plan of excavation. Grooves, cuttings, ham- 
mer-marks, and chisel-marks, were visible on the va- 
rious sides of the rocks, which looked remarkably fresh 
and white. 

In one part, a deep hollow or large pit, we saw a 
skull and some bones ; but that was the only fragment 
of the kind that we noticed. So that the quarry would 
not seem to have been the haunt of wild beasts. Bones 
and other refuse would have been found in larger quan- 
tities. It would have been rather curious had this 
been ascertained to be the resort of the neighbouring 
wolves and jackals ; for this is Benjamin's hill ; and it 
would have given to this great cavern the character of 
the den of the wolf of Benjamin (the " evening wolf/' 
Zeph. iii. 3), here tearing his prey and gnawing his 
bones, preserving to the last the character of " wolf of 
Benjamin, ' the " wolf of the evenings " (Jer. v. 6), But 
we found no relics of the kind alluded to. 

It seems to be to this place that the frequent refer- 
ences in Josephus are made, i-a his narration of the 



320 



JOSEPHUS. 



siege of the city. When the lower city was taken, many 
of the Jews, with their leaders, betook themselves to 
caverns under the city. " Their last hope was in the 
underground places, betaking themselves to which they 
expected not to be searched out/'* Again, he mentions 
their confidence in these subterraneous retreats, from 
which they issued forth to burn, and pillage, and slay.f 
Again he mentions that, as for the seditious, some of 
them u went up from the wall to the citadel, J others of 
them descended into the underground places." § Again, 
he writes that those who were driven out of the towers 
of the inner wall, " fled to the valley which is under 
Siloam \ there rallying, they renewed their attack 
upon the Romans ; but being repulsed they dispersed, 
and " descended into the underground places." || Sub- 
sequently he describes the Eomans as u making a search 
for Jews underground,"^ and finding a great deal of 
treasure in these subterraneous parts.** A little farther 
on, he mentions that at last John, with his com- 
panions, was forced, by want of food in these parts 

* Jewish War, b. vi. 7. 3. These excavations Josephus frequently 
speaks of as reav bvrovofAM ; and it is to these Tacitus refers, and not 
to the temple substructions, when he speaks of cavati sub terra montes. 
Hist. v. 12. 

t Totg V'—ojeloig Trz-Troidorsg. Ib. ib. 

t ave%y)9Gvv rev rz'iyj/jg hg rqv 9 Azpciv. Ib. vi. 8. 4. 

§ TGi; VKQVQfbMQ, 

|| Ib. vi. 8, 5, 7carsbv<fa,v hg rovg 'J<7Tov6/u,ovg. 
U Ib. vi. 9, 4. 

** Ib. ib. rroXXa rw KU^rfkim h rate dwgv<*iv evrifficsro. 



simon's stratagem. 



321 



to surrender himself to the Romans.* But the most 
striking notice of these cavities is in a subsequent book, 
when going back upon some parts of the narrative, he 
describes Simon, who occupied the upper city, when 
the Romans had forced the wall and had entered the 
streets, as letting himself down into these caverns, with 
a great number of associates and workmen carrying 
iron tools, in order to dig a way out for himself beyond 
the city and the Roman lines. He found the work too 
great, and, as provisions began to fail, he bethought 
himself of a stratagem to save himself and to alarm the 
Romans. Robing himself in white, and throwing over 
his shoulders a purple mantle, he suddenly rose above 
ground amid the ruins of the temple. His device 
threw the enemy into momentary astonishment ; but 
mustering courage to salute the spectre, they seized 
Simon and. carried him to Terentius Rufus, and finally 
to Rome. But his appearance led to the discovery of 
the entrance to the caverns, and his companions were 
immediately searched for and brought up.-f- 

* lb. ib. 

f The whole passage is worth citation. " This Simon, Jerusalem being 
besieged, was in the upper city. When, however, the Roman army, hav- 
ing come within the walls, was laying waste the city, he took the most 
trusty of his friends, and with them stone-cutters, and the iron tools 
suited to their work, as well as provision for many days, and let himself 
down (xai)i^/i/, the same word as Luke v. 15 ; Acts ix. 25 ; x.ll ; xi. 5) 
into one of these concealed underground cavities. He made his way 
through this as far as the old excavations extended. Coming upon firm 
ground, they set to excavate this, in the hope of being able to advance 
farther, and escape by making their ascent in a safe spot. But the expe- 

X 



322 



THE EXTENT OF THE QUARRIES. 



Comparing these narratives with present appear- 
ances, we learn that these quarries must have extended 
from Jeremiah's grotto to the temple, a distance of 
about 2300 feet, or less than half a mile, — thus under- 
mining the whole extent of Akra, and part of Moriah. 
As yet, no one has penetrated more than six hundred 
feet southward or south-eastward ; and the distance 
between the grotto and the wall (about - r )00 feet) added 
to this, makes only 1100 feet, leaving 1200 feet, or 
nearly the half, unexplored. The narrative of Jose- 
phus shews us that Simon knew the great extent of the 
excavations ; for he evidently calculated that, by setting 
to dig and mine, after these caverns ceased, he would 
soon bring himself beyond the Roman lines. We 
gather nothing from it as to whether the present en- 
trance was then open, or at least known, to the Jews ; 
for, even though Simon had known it, he would not 
have ventured to make his exit there, as that would 
have thrown him into the very midst of the Roman 
entrenchments. We learn, also, that there really was 
a shaft descending into these quarries from the temple. 
That, in ail likelihood, remains to this day ; and were 

ri merit shewed the fallaciousness of their hope ; for the miners (psraX- 
"keuGVTSg) made little progress, and that with difficulty, n,nd their provi- 
sions, though carefully dispensed, were on the point of foiling them. 
Making an attempt, then, to deceive the Romans by a panic, he put on 
white garments, and, fastening on a purple cloak, he appeared cut of the 
ground on the very spot where the temple had formerly been. This rising 
of his out of the ground, led to the apprehension of many others of the 
seditious, in these underground cavities. "-—Jwisk War, vii. 2, 1. 



LABYRINTHINE INTRICACY. 



323 



the whole precincts of the mosque thrown open to 
investigation, Simon's place of ascent from his subter- 
raneous hiding-place would soon be discovered. But 
all investigation is still prohibited. The presence and 
the prejudice of the Moslem hinder discovery. God, 
in his wisdom, has seen fit to give the guardianship of 
his ancient places into the hands of, perhaps, the only 
nation upon earth who would arrest research. When, 
in early centuries, or in the victorious day of the Cru- 
sades, they were in other hands, nothing was done in 
searching out the verities of antiquity. To coin legends, 
and to frame an ecclesiastical topography, embodying 
neither history nor research, but mere unauthorized 
fictions devised for the occasion, or picked up from 
past ages, — this was the vocation of Christianity, in 
these times, in so far as Palestine and its holy places 
were concerned. 

We retraced our steps through the different avenues 
and chambers of this vast quarry without difficulty, as 
our guide was with us. But we felt that without a guide 
we should not have liked to traverse these intricacies. 
No doubt, the passages and cavities are, in general, 
wider and higher than those in the cave of Khureitun, 
so that one can see and be seen farther off ; yet the 
number of the compartments, and their general resem- 
blance to each other, would make the thread of Ariadne 
neither superfluous nor undesirable. 

It has struck us since that there may have always 
existed here some natural cavity or cavities, and that of 



324 



OUR EXIT. 



these the builders of the city or temple took advan- 
tage. The limestone rocks in this country abound with 
such caverns, and these natural excavations form an 
easy commencement of a quarry. It seemed to me, 
also, that, under ground, the stone was softer, and, of 
course, more easily worked. I observed this apparent 
softness, not only here, but also in the Khureitun cave, 
and even in some parts of the substructures of the 
mosque, to which air and light have not free access. 
Exposure to sun and air seems to indurate the surface 
of the rock, and make it susceptible of a finer polish 
than I should have thought it capable of, judging from 
the soft brittleness exhibited at the edges, and in all 
the fresh fractures. 

We soon ascended the last slope, leading up to the 
aperture, and then, one by one, wriggled ourselves 
through the narrow bore * We did not experience 
any greater discomfort than a little heat and dirt. 
Doffing our superfluous garments, we strapped them 
up, and throwing them over our shoulders, returned 
through the Damascus gate and along the bazaars, to 
our hotel on Mount Sion. The evening we spent at 
Dr Macgown's most pleasantly, in varied conversation 
on Scripture and antiquities, with several of the mis- 
sionaries. 

Jerusalem, Saturday, March 8. — Went out about 
half-past seven for a walk, through the olives on the 

* See Tasso, b. x. canto xxxiii. 



VIEW FROM THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE. 



325 



north-west of the city, to the tombs of the kings, which 
I reached in about twenty minutes, passing over ground 
now partially tilled and planted, but which had once 
been within the walls. I spent some little time in 
examining them ; but they have been so often described 
and sketched by travellers, that I shall not say much 
about them. The outer gateway into them, though 
much broken, is one of the most elaborate pieces of 
carving that we have seen ; but the tombs themselves 
are inferior to those of the Judges. 

In the afternoon we went to the Governor's house, 
supposed by most to be the site of Pilate's house. The 
Governor was very civil, ordered in refreshments, and 
shewed us up to the top of his house. From this you 
have a complete view of the Haram and the mosques, 
the only view which hitherto strangers were permitted 
to have. The view of distant objects was clear. Olivet, 
with the mountains of Moab in the background, stood 
up m the sunshine ; while the city beneath, on every 
side of us, looked beautiful. 

Gazing down thus upon the roofs of the city, you see 
fully its shape and undulations, though the rubbish of 
ages has very much filled up its interior valleys, so that 
you cannot recognise the " rock of the plain " or the 
valley/' of which Jerusalem is called the " inhabitress " 
(Jer. x. 17). The heights of Akra and the steeps of 
Zion are all but invisible now, so many have been the 
overturning.^ which have visited the city. Yet, save in 
the rubbish that has been left, there is nothing here to 



326 



Jerusalem's desolation. 



tell of the greatness or the number of Jerusalem's over- 
throws. The crusades, for example, were terrible, but 
like everything else that has befallen Jerusalem, they 
exercised no permanent influence, nor brought about 
long results. They were but a wave, no more ; a broad 
and lofty one, that, in its run, swept men and kingdoms 
before it, but soon retiring, and in its reflux leaving 
only sand and shingle. The rains of Palestine look not 
so much the moss-grown debris of desolation, as the 
confused stones of the beach, rolled, rounded, and heaped 
together by the action of the tide. North, south, east, 
and w r est, Babylon. Assyria, Persia, Edom, Moab, Amnion, 
Egypt, Africa, Greece, Eome, have tossed their billows 
on her strand, for three thousand years, each one ef- 
facing the ravages of the preceding by greater havoc of 
its own, and leaving the land unreclaimed and un- 
healed, as if within the perpetual tide-mark of the 
nations. 

The evening came down in clouds, and the night was 
cold and windy. This was but the first week of March, 
and we learned that in some seasons the weather has 
at this time been most ungenial. Only last year there 
was such a heavy fall of snow as to block up the road 
to Bethany over Olivet ; and since we came to J erusalem 
we had seen snow as w r ell as rain, we had frost as w T ell 
cold. We found, indeed, better weather than we had 
been led to expect ; for we had bee a alarmed before- 
hand with predictions of the rain-floods that were to 
drench us, if not to sweep away our tents. We had 



WANT OF RAIN. 



327 



not been confined to the house one whole day by the 
weather, though once or twice a forenoon or afternoon 
of rain broke up our plans, so that Anata (Anathoth), 
the Frank mountain, Emwas, and one or two places 
remained on our list unvisited. We, of course, did not 
murmur at the superfluity of sunshine. But others did ; 
and we heard the expression of complaints and fore- 
boding in many quarters. The latter rain had been 
looked for ; but it had not come, and these few showers 
of which we have spoken had made no impression on 
the ground. They had not raised the pool of Siloam, 
nor the Birket Mamilla, by a single inch. The Kedron 
had not flowed so much as half an hour ; and the Bir 
Eyub remained at its old level. The " summer-fruits " 
were despaired of ; some could not be sown or planted 
till the shower came, and others would not spring by 
reason of the drought. The country was parched, for 
the latter rain had been delayed beyond its time.* 

Jerusalem, Sabbath, March 9. — The morning rose 
in beauty, and I sat at the window marking the differ- 
ent parts of the well-known scene, on this my last Sab- 
bath in Jerusalem. Scopus and Olivet, with the 
range of city roofs between, looked brighter than ever. 
Nothing that the sunshine of the present, or the me- 
mories of the past, could do for them was awanting. 
Almost under the window was " Hezekiah's pool/' as 

* This year (1857) the opposite calamity has come upon the land. 
The floods have been excessive. Solomon's pools have overflowed. The 
spring at [Jrtass has been so plentiful as to sweep away crop and soil. 



328 



SABBATH-MUSINGS. 



it is called ; a little farther on the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre ; to the right on the hill rose the Church of 
the Ascension ; the place where I was sittting was 
Mount Zion, and not far off there rose one of the few 
palm-trees which still adorn Jerusalem. Congenial 
scenes for a Sabbath morning ! There was no gloom 
nor heaviness. Light, love, peace, seemed to impreg- 
nate the air and tinge the sky. Desolation and death 
seemed far away. It was a living stillness that floated 
down from that old canopy of blue, speaking to us even 
more of the life than of the death of the Risen One ; for 
though this is His city and His tomb, " He is not 
here, he is risen " and it is of Him as the Risen 
Christ that this day speaks. Out of death, life has 
come ; out of the grave, resurrection. The " first day 
of the week !" How rich is the glow of the new dawn 
which the last chapters of the Evangelists record ! 
Darkness had been for three daj's upon the face of the 
deep ; and now God said " let the light be, and the 
light was/' On this morn the " true light," — the lux 
vera mundi, — rose upon the city that had sought to 
quench it. On what nation, city, soul, may it not rise 
if it rose upon Jerusalem ? 

After public service I took my Bible and went to 
Gethsemane, going out by the Jaffa gate. Outside 
was a goodly sight. Men, women, and children, all in 
gala dress, sat or strolled upon the various slopes of 
Zion, and in its neighbourhood. There were stragglers 
here and there for nearly a mile in all directions. The 



SCENE AT THE GATES. 



329 



women were most numerous, and their white head- 
dress, sometimes swelling in the breeze, sometimes lying 
gracefully over their shoulders, glanced brightly out 
amid the less numerous red and yellow turbans of the 
men. Most of them were in groups, conversing with 
each other under the walls of the city, hard by the J affa 
gate, or on the knolls around. How like it seemed to 
the scene which the prophet gives, " thy people still 
are talking by the walls and in the doors of the houses" 
(Ezek. xxxiii. 30). 

The city is no longer " Salem" the city of peace ; nor 
is it either the city of righteousness, or the city of the 
great King. It lies not only waste, but defiled and un- 
clean. The " holy flesh" (Jer. xi. 15) has passed away, 
and the only sacredness connected with it is in the 
memories of the past. Yet the Moslem has affixed to 
it the name of holy, El-Kuds, and calls that clean which 
God has called unclean. I do not know that in so doing 
he had Scripture in his thoughts at all. Yet from the 
time of Nehemiah downwards it frequently gets this 
name. " They cast lots to dwell in Jerusalem, THE 
Holy City" (Neh. xi. 1). " The Levites of the Holy 
City were two hundred and eighty-four," (Neh, xi. J 8). 
" They call themselves of the Holy City," (Isa. xlviii. 
2). " Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, 
the Holy City," (Isa. lii. 1). " Seventy weeks are 
determined on thy Holy City," (Dan. m 24). '* The 
devil taketh him up into the Holy City," (Matt. iv. 5). 
" Went into the Holy City and appeared unto many," 



330 



THE HOLY CITY. 



(Matt, xxvii. 53). " The Holy City shall they tread 
under foot/' (Rev. xi. 2). There are only other two 
places in which the words occur, and these refer to the 
heavenly, not to the earthly, city, " I, John, saw THE 
Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from Coa 
out of heaven/' (Rev. xxi. 2). " God shall take away 
his part out of the Holy City/' (Rev. xxii. 19). But 
though only in these instances does the above expres- 
sion occur, yet the epithet " holy" is often found in con- 
nection with things pertaining to the city. The people's 
gifts are " holy gifts/' (Exod. xxviii. 38). The high 
priest's crown is a " holy crown," (Exod. xxix. 6). The 
ointment of the sanctuary is " holy ointment, (Exod. 

xxx. 25). The oil is called " the holy anointing oil," 
(Exod. xxx. 25). The Sabbath is a " holy day," (Exod. 

xxxi. 14). The high priest's crown is a " holy crown," 
(Lev. viii. 9). His dress is " the holy linen coat," (Lev. 
xvi. 4). The sanctuary is " the holy sanctuary/' (Lev. 
xvi. 33). The water used in sprinkling is the " holy 
water," (Numb. v. 17). The people are called a " holy 
congregation," (Numb. xvi. 3). The utensils of the 
sanctuary are " holy instruments," (Numb. xxxi. 6), 
" holy vessels," (1 Kings viii. 4). The temple is called 
" the holy house," (1 Chron. xxix. 3). The ark is called 
" the holy ark," (2 Chron. xxxv. 3). The shrine is 
called " the holy oracle," (Psa. xxviii. 2). Mount Sion 
is called " the holy hill," (Psa. xcix. 9 ; Joel iii. 17), 
" the holy mountain," (Isa, xxvii. 13). The chambers 
of the priests are called ( '' holy chambers," (Ezek. xlii. 



EL-KUDS. 



331 



13). The land itself is called " the holy land/*' (Zech. 
ii. 12). 

Since Scripture thus minutely gives the name of holy 
to everything connected with Jerusalem, there needs be 
no wonder that the city itself should get the name, and 
that the Mahommedans should preserve and perpetuate 
that name, long after that which gave origin to it had 
departed. Nor can the Christian withhold his recogni- 
tion from this, as the authentic expression of his feel- 
ings in looking upon the city, even as it lies before him 
in ruins, and polluted with false worship in every street. 
The Son of God was here, and how can he but feel that 
the ground is holy. The slaying of that J ust One was 
indeed an act which blotted out the name, and made it 
of all places most unclean ; yet this pollution is only for 
a season. It is a mere parenthesis in the mysterious 
story of the nation and the city. And the reader of 
God's word can overlook this sorrowful interval, and 
think of Jerusalem only as it once was ere it crucified 
its King, and as it shall be when restored and conse- 
crated again, by that very blood which it shed. 

I soon found a shady olive with a rock beneath, 
where I could sit down. There were no groups of 
strollers near, nor was there so much as one passing 
fellah to disturb the quiet. The ground was partly 
ploughed, but the grain was barely shewing itself. 
Small flowers, of various colours, sprinkled the soil. It 
is "good to be here;" but not good, as some have 
dreamed, to be here always. To build or hew out a cell, 



832 



THE AGONY. 



and to creep into one of its chambers, there to meditate 
and mortify " the flesh this is not religion, nor is it 
peace. A week's retreat in such a spot, after the toil 
and buffeting of useful but exhausting months, is much 
to be coveted ; but a life-time's slumbrous inaction, even 
in Gethsemane or Golgotha, would be utter weariness. 
The casual solitude, like that of Paul in the Mamertine 
dungeon, or of John in Patmos, or Whitefield upon the 
Atlantic Ocean, coming after brave doings and endur- 
ings ; this is " the sleep which God gives to his be- 
loved," this is the silence which heals the wounds of the 
spirit, and fills it with serene, but not stagnant joy. 

How true does the gospel story of " the agony " ap- 
pear when sitting among these olives. The sorrow, the 
cry, the anguish, the sweat, — how real do they seem ! 
How genuine the sacrifice ; how complete the substitu- 
tion of "the just for the unjust V It is no fictitious 
sorrow, no wasted blood, no useless endurance, no un- 
meaning cry of sinking nature that this place speaks of. 
Each olive and each rock still repeat the strong crying 
and tears, " Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me " " thy wrath lieth hard upon me, thou hast 
afflicted me with all thy waves." The very spot where 
he knelt, we know not ; it might be here where I am sit- 
ing. The place where the angel appeared to strengthen 
him, we know not ; it might be hard by. The place 
where the disciples slept, and Peter drew the sword, 
and Judas kissed, we know not. It could not have 
been far off. Along this way, " he was led as a lamb 



THE TURTLE-DOVE. 



333 



to the slaughter/' Here might be said to terminate the 
mystery of his vicarious life, — the life that has provided 
" the righteousness \" here began the marvel of his 
vicarious death ; — the death that exhausted the eternal 
penalty of unrighteousness, and paid " the wages of sin/' 

A far truer thing did this old olive-yard seem to us 
than the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, that gorgeous 
pantheon of baptised idolatry. A far more solemn 
voice seemed to come from these rocks around, than 
from the pretended " via dolorosa/' or u Ecce Homo " 
arch. The natural features of the spot were all authen- 
tic ; man had marred nothing here. 

Yon turtle-dove is winging its way across the valley, 
seeking shelter from the heat. It finds it in yon neigh- 
bouring olive, whose thick foliage shuts out the scorch- 
ing sun. So let my soul find a surer, safer resting 
place in God's goodly olive-tree, his " plant of renown " 
(Ezek. xxxiv. 29), beneath whose shadow there is se- 
curity, and coolness, and peace. 

Farewell, Gethsemane ! I have visited thee almost 
each day of my three weeks' sojourn in Jerusalem ; and 
every rock, and crevice, and hollow, and olive, seems 
already as familiar as the garden of my boyhood. 
From thee I carry home a life-time's memories.* 

* Early writers make mention of a village of Gethsemane, and if so, the 
place of the olive-press, which Gethsemane perhaps signifies, could not be 
far away. Round about the northern extremities of the valley, where the 
garden lies, were probably what are called " the fields of Kedron" (2 Kings 
xxiii. 4). Farther up was the village of Bezetha, mentioned in the Apo- 
crypha (1 Mace. vii. 19), which gave name to the hill Bezetha, and finally 



334 



LAST SERMON IN JERUSALEM. 



In the evening I preached my last sermon in Jeru- 
salem, — on John xix. 5, "Behold the man!" Here 
where He fought our fight, and won life for us by 
dying ; here where his glory is yet to be revealed, we 
had been permitted to proclaim his love, and life, and 
death, and kingdom. To preach on Mars Hill would 
have been an event worth remembering ; much more to 
preach on Mount Zion ; to say to J erusalem, " behold 
your king," or to the cities of Judah, "behold your 
God." (Isa. xl. 9). 

to the " new town " of Jerusalem. Bezetha means " the house of olives." 
So that we have an interesting cluster of names attaching to this once 
fruitful spot, the orchard of the city. (1.) Bezetha, the olive-house, (2.) 
Gethsemane, the olive-press or olive-valley. (3.) Olivet, the olive-bill. 
(4.) Bethany, the house of dates. (5.) Bethphnge, the house of figs. (6.) 
Chaphenapha, mentioned by the Kabbies, which must have lain a little 
lower down the valley than Gethsemane, and so called from its unripe 
dates. 



CHAPTER Xn. 



LEPERS — WALK TO BETHANY — LEAVING JERUSALEM — SCOPUS — SHAPHAT 

EL-BIREH BETIN MOONLIGHT JOURNEY A IN YEBRUD — AIN 

HARAMIYEH— MR BEDDOME'S NARRATIVE. 

Jerusalem, Monday, March 10. 1856. — Rose a little 
after six, for a farewell walk to Bethany, as we are to 
leave for the north in the afternoon. The morning was 
cloudy, but not cold ; and though rain threatened, no 
shower found its way down. Instead of going out at 
the Jaffa gate, which was the nearest, I turned to the 
left, keeping within the walls, and passing along the 
well-paved court of the Armenian Convent, I soon found 
myself at the houses of the lepers, from which, turning 
to the right, I made my way out by the Zion-gate, 
which is hard by these wretched dwellings of disease. 
These poor creatures are not confined either to their 
houses or to their special quarter of the city. At 
whatever hour we might happen to go out at the Jaffa- 
gate, we were sure to find some of them sitting on 
the heaps of rubbish that line the road which leads 
dow r n into the valley. They looked very miserable, ill- 



336 



THE LEPERS. 



clad, and sickly, as well as wasted in face, or foot, or 
hand. They did seem very loathsome, and often re- 
minded us of the scriptural allusions to this disease, 
which of all others is the saddest, but fullest type of the 
infinite evil, SIN. They were certainly in a sense " with- 
out the camp" (Lev. xiii. 46) ; for their huts were 
against the wall close by the gate, and they in begging 
alms always sat outside. But there was no covering ol 
their upper lip ; their heads were not bare ; their clothes, 
though ragged, were not exactly " rent and their cry 
was not, ''unclean, unclean/' but " backshish, back- 
shish/' In former times their abodes seem to have been 
much in the same situation as at present ; for in the 
narrative of the siege of Samaria, we are told " there 
were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate' 
(2 Kings vii. 3) ;* and, in our Lord's journey to Jerusa- 
lem, we read that as he entered into a certain village 
there met him ten men that were lepers" (Luke xvh\ 
12). 

Passing down Mount Zion, and crossing the Kedron 
near Absalom's pillar. I was soon the way to Bethany, 
noticing again on tne ngnt the withered fig-tree which 
had already attracted my eye. I soon reached Bethany, 
but did not enter it, not wishing to encounter either its 
dogs or its dirt. My eye wandered over all parts of it, 
and marked the varied hill-slopes which rise around, as 

* Of these four lepers, perhaps Gehazi was one, and the events which 
followed might bring about his introduction to the king, mentioned in 
the next chapter. 



MORNING WALK TO BETHANY. 



337 



well as the thickly planted fruit-trees in which it is em- 
bowered. I have looked on it from all sides now, and 
seen it in all varieties of light and shade ; in sunrise, 
noon, and sunset ; veiled with the cloud or basking in 
the sun; and in each of these it presents the same aspect 
of lonely beauty. It is the perfection of retirement and 
repose. I have seen nothing before or since at all to be 
compared with it, save Nazareth, which, in some re- 
spects, is not unlike it. Before leaving, I went to the 
old high ruin called the house of Lazarus, and there 
stood for a little, marking the different parts of the 
house, and picking up the wild-flowers that grew amid 
the ruins. Leaving this house, I struck upwards through 
some fields, or rather orchards, where I gathered a few 
olive-leaves and almond-blossoms, to preserve, in after 
years, the memory of the scene. Then, taking a last 
look of Bethany, I hastened downward and soon struck 
into the old road. I meant to have made a complete 
farewell circuit of the different places within reach, 
going round by Siloam and Gethsemane. But the clouds 
threatened, and the morning was pretty far advanced. 
So I contented myself with a distant look, Gethsemane 
farthest off. Siloam and the King's gardens nearer at 
hand. I bade them all farewell, and again ascending 
the hill, returned, as I went out, by the Zion gate, about 
half-past eight. 

The forenoon was spent in packing and in paying 
some last visits. Leaving J erusalem is like leaving home. 

At three o'clock, Mr Poynder and I were ready to 

Y 



338 



GLOOM OVER JERUSALEM. 



start. We set out (Mr Valentiner accompanying us), 
leaving the others to follow, as we supposed, with the 
dragoman, and expecting to reach El-Bireh about five, 
where we are told our tents, which left some hours ago, 
are to be pitched for the night. We turn our faces 
northwards, and passing by the tombs of the Kings, we 
ascend the slope of Scopus.* The afternoon is gloomy, 
and the sky heavy, but there are no mists to bar the 
view on any side. Once and again we turn round to 
gaze on the scene which we are leaving. The sunshine is 
shut out from it, and it looks sad. The clouds hang 
thickly over it, not in belts or masses, with blue be- 
tween, but in one low smothering stretch of curtain, 
which throws its gloom upon roof and wall, till the 
city seems more like a grave-yard than the abode of 
living men, and an air of still melancholy shades the 
features of the " joyous city/' 

To the right, the far ridges of Moab looked like hills of 
sackcloth, and the nearer mount of Olives more discon- 
solate than ever. To the left, Nebi Samuel rose in spectral 
isolation, and to the south, Rephaim stretched away in 
gloomy level, half-hid by the battlements of the city. The 
ridge of Mar Elias of course shut out Bethlehem, but we 

* We had meant to visit Lifta or Lifteh, not far off, as the map shews. 
This is generally identified with Nephtoah (Josh. xv. 9). I rather look 
on it as the ancient Eleph, mentioned in connection with Jerusalem, 
Josh, xviii. 28. "Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi." Zelah may be the modern 
Selam (Wady) near Anata. This assumes no greater transformation of 
name than that of Shi'.oh into Seiiun, or Jezreel into Zerin. 



THE LAST LOOK. 



339 



could guess where it lay, not far out of sight. It might be 
that our feelings threw a double shadow over the scene ; 
but the day was of that silent dulness which could not 
fail to give a peculiar aspect to each object around. 

Here we stood in silence, taking our last look of the 
wondrous city. We were Gentiles from a far land gazing 
on the desolations of a Jewish city. Yet where were 
the tokens of its J ewish origin ? Nowhere. Cupolas and 
minarets, churches and mosques, all spoke of the Gentile, 
not of the Jew. Not a trace of Israel was there. No ban- 
ner of any of the tribes floats yonder. " Overthrown by 
strangers/' is the doom w r ritten upon its walls. (Isa. i. 7.) 

Over these walls the Jew from the far land comes to 
mourn ; nor is he too proud to shew his grief ; or rather 
his grief is too great to be hidden. Besides, he can 
afford to humble himself thus publicly, for the very 
humiliation is the witness of mighty days and deeds, as 
well as the anticipation of things mightier still. Other 
nations hide their grief, and try to forget their calamities. 
Assyria has buried hers, for disasters are not written 
on her cylinders or obelisks. Egypt has done the same. 
They cannot afford so to humble themselves. Israel 
only keeps public record of his darkest reverses ; and 
the fatal " ninth of Ab " is celebrated as duly, as if it 
were the anniversary of some noble victory.* 

* The ninth of Ab or tenth of August is said to be the day of the de- 
struction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, the day of its destruction by 
Titus, the day of the slaughter of 600,000 Jews by Hadrian. See He- 
brew Keview, vol. ii. p. 288 ; vol. iii. p. 88. 



340 



SCOPUS i\ND ITS BATTLES. 



But the day is far spent, so we must move on. Yet 
this seems hard to do. Another and another look ! 
" The eye is not satisfied with seeing." At last we turn 
round, and ride slowly down the slope that hides J eru- 
salem from view. 

No man who has visited Jerusalem will ever forget 
his first look of it or his last. 

We now passed into the large hollow on the other 
side of Scopus. How well fitted for the encampment 
of a mighty army! It is spacious, and defended by 
rising grounds. On many accounts it is just such a 
spot as a skilful general w T ould fix upon for his legions. 
How often in the course of our stay in Jerusalem, had 
we gazed upon this hill and tried to imagine the scenes 
of skirmish and battle that had taken place upon its side 
or at its foot ! Up and down its grey slopes the waves 
of war had flowed and reflowed, month after month, 
reddening the soil. Never had Rome found such a 
vigour of endurance and resistance ; never had a na- 
tion shewed such desperate strength of will, and such 
appalling bravery. Famine, faction, and the sword, 
had weakened, divided, decimated them ; yet not a foot 
was yielded, and not a cheek grew pale. Walls fell, 
towers were sapped, ramparts were scaled, the legions 
poured in like the full tide ; yet, in the midst of fire, and 
smoke, and ruin, and blood, stood the gaunt remnant ; 
and the unmailed Jew, weary with fight and watching, 
wasted with famine and woe, once and again cleared the 
breach of the foe, and swept back, as with the rush of 



SHAFAT AND TULEIL EL-FUL. 



341 



the hurricane, the mailed legions of Italy to their camp 
upon the well r known hill, till even the hardiest general 
spoke of raising the siege, and retiring before a race of 
men so reckless of life and so devoid of fear. 

It is plain, even from the account of Josephus, who 
does not favour nor flatter his countrymen, that the 
Roman soldiers were thoroughly terrified by the bravery 
of the Jews, and that, had it not been for Titus, they 
would have fled from Jerusalem again, as they had al- 
ready done sometime before, under Cestius. 

As we moved slowly onwards, we saw ruins in seve- 
ral places ; to our left, the village of Shafat (which 
perhaps may be Mizpeh), with old relics scattered 
round, and further on, to onr right, a hill called, like 
many places both in Syria and the desert, " the hill of 
beans/' Tuleil el-Ful, on which there is a mound of 
rubbish, the remains of some old buildings. This seems 
to be Gibeah of Benjamin, called also Gibeah of Saul, 
as being the birthplace of that king and the seat of his 
government ; at least it corresponds with the position 
which history gives to Gibeah ; but the non-coincidence 
of the names rather puzzles one.* 

Had not the lateness of the hour hindered, we should 

* See Robinson, vol. i. 577, 573. Dr Stewart gives Dr Barclay as the 
suggester of this site. Tent and Khan, p. 359, 360. At p. 359 Dr S. has 
overlooked the Hebrew word for "carnages," (in Isaiah x. 28), which does 
not refer to chariots but baggage, or literally, " vessels." We remember 
many years ago noticing Rae Wilson's similar oversight in regard to Acts 
xxi. 15. The "carriages" of Isa. xlvi. 1 are " loads" or " packages,*' See 
the original ; and also Alexander on the passage. 



342 



KHAN AND WELL. 



have taken on our way, both Tuleil el-Ful, and, a mite 
and half eastward of it, Anata, Jeremiah's city, "poor 
Anathoth " (Isa. x. SO). A little farther north, we might 
have seen Er-Ram, the ancient Ramah of Benjamin 
(Josh, xviii. 25).* 

We came, about half-past five, to a ruined khan, with 
a reservoir beside it ; one of the many wells or cisterns 
which have given name to the place for which we are 
making. Here we find a portion of the American party, 
Mr and Mrs Prime, and Mr Whitney. They have been 
waiting for the arrival of their dragoman and Mr 
Righter,-f- and are glad now to proceed without delay to 
El-Bireh, where they, as w T ell as we, expect to rest for 
the night. 

For some little time we had seen before us, on the 
top of the ridge, the village of Bireh or d-Bireh, that 
is " the well/' where we expected to find our tents. 
Thinking ourselves in good time to reach them long be- 
fore dark, w r e made no haste ; and a little before sun- 
set we found ourselves ascending the rocky slope which 
the white village crowns. A few minutes more brought 

* In Dr Robinson's map of the environs of Jerusalem, within a mile of 
el-Bireh is a place marked ez Zuweikeh, which in another place he calls 
Suweilceh, (vol. i. 575). It may be asked, is not this, perhaps, the Sechu men- 
tioned 1 Sam. six. 22, " the great well that is in Sechu V Shechu is not ne- 
cessarily the same as Socoh or Shocoh, as is generally supposed ; and it is 
mentioned in connection with Ramah. The only difficulty is as to which 
Ramah is meant } 

f Mr Righter was an American missionary at Constantinople. He died 
some months after at Diarbeker. He was a man that won our esteem 
at once, by his Christian simplicity find unfeig-ned piety. 



EL-BIREH. 



343 



us into Bireh, where we found less than the usual 
amount of dogs, and children, and gazing fellahin. Its 
height perhaps keeps it cleaner, and gives it a purer 
air. It is well placed both for strength and beauty, 
commanding no inconsiderable range of view. It was 
the Beevoih of the ancient Gibeonites ;* the most 
eastern of their four cities ; and though inferior to 
Gibeon, the capital of that wily tribe, it must have been 
a place of no mean importance and strength. Besides 
riding through it, I rode up to what seemed the highest 
part, where, free from the interruption of houses, I got 
a view, not only of the village, but of the surrounding 
country. There is no other village in sight, and Jeru- 
salem is shut out by the intervening ridges. Yet the 
valley beneath looks well, though treeless and stony, 
save in the neigbourhood of the village, where cultiva- 
tion shews itself. The afternoon had been brightening 
since we left Jerusalem, and the setting sun, disengag- 
ing itself from the masses of western cloud, was in some 
measure relieving the bleakness that hung over these 
forsaken heights. Still the general tinge was a melan- 
choly one, j3roduced, in part perhaps, by the chill 
shadows of the evening. Crowds of worshippers going 
up to the passover had once been seen crossing this 
height ; Assyrian and Roman armies had filled that 
hollow ; but now there is not one stray villager or tra- 
veller, as far as the eye can stretch. 

* Jush. ix 17 ; xviii. 21, 25. There is no proof that it was the Deer to 
which Jotbam fled, Judges ix. 21. 



344 BSIT1N. 

In vain we looked round for our tents. Nowhere can 
they be found. We began to blame ourselves for leav- 
ing the city without our dragoman, or rather to blame 
our dragoman for remaining behind, on business or 
pleasure of his own. Still, as we had Abd el-Atih, the 
dragoman of our American friends with us, we were not 
much troubled, and resolved to push on, hoping to find 
our tents at Beitin (Bethel), a few miles off. 

The road gets very rocky after leaving Bireh ; or 
rather there is no road at all. You have to leave your 
surefooted horse to pick his steps among stones and 
boulders, without number, and of all sizes. Sometimes 
we went over one of the rock-strewn eminences, then we 
went down into a hollow, then we wound round the 
shoulder of a hill, then we passed along a more level 
but equally rocky surface. Jacob certainly would be at 
no loss for a pillow here. 

We soon reach the ruins of Beitin, the ancient Beth- 
aven or Bethel, ; and, somewhere on the road, we must 
have passed the site of the palm-tree of Deborah, where 
she judged Israel, and which was " between Raman and 
Bethel in Mount Ephraim," (Judges iv. 5). The last 
rays of twilight are still lingering to shew us the fields 
of debris on our right, with the old castle, the Burj -Bei- 
tin, rising like a sepulchral monument out of the midst 
of them, and planted gloomily in relief against the dim 
blue of the eastern horizon. We could not see clearly ; 
but we had sufficient light to shew us the wild and stony 
desolation that spreads itself over these old mountain- 



THE EOCKS OF BETHEL. 



345 



heights, which are associated in our minds with so man\ 
of the histories of Scripture, both the evil and the good, 
both the true worship and the dark idolatry of the 
nation. To the natural wildness of the scene, the 
darkening twilight added a gloom, not unsuited to 
the place, and its ages of varied remembrances. Ai, 
Migron, Ophra, and " the rock Rimmon," all lay 
near at hand, each with a story of its own to add to the 
crowd of memories that cover the spot.* As we wind 
our difficult way amid these grey blocks, the twilight 
passes into moonlight, and the stars wake up one by 
one, according to their brightness ; for the moon is but 
in her first quarter, giving us a sufficient measure 
of light, yet not obscuring her fellows, as her fair 
crescent glides along the hill-tops that rise up on our 
left. Moonlight upon Bethel ! Nothing could have 
better suited the story of these old ruins, with their 
mingled light and shade. They seemed like islands of 
silver in a sea of gloom. 

Here we had certainly expected to find our tents. 
But no light appears, no gleam of canvas in the moon- 
shine. We shout, but no answer comes. We are weary, 

* A little way eastward of Beitin is Makhrun, which is not unlikely to 
be the Migron of Isa. x. 28 ; and also of 1 Sam. xiv. 2. In this latter pas- 
sage it is said to be in the "uttermost part of Gibeah," or " the extremity 
of the mountain," in which or near which was a famous pomegranate- tree 
in Migron. From this pomegranate-tree (Rimmon) the rock Rimmon, I 
suppose, took its name ; so that Migron and the rock Rimmon must have 
been near each other. Dr Robinson finds Rimmon in Rummon, a few 
miles east of Beitin. vol. i. p. 440. 



346 



WANDERING IN SEARCH OF TENTS. 



and it is getting late ; but we must move on. We fear 
that we may have passed them. But Abd-el-Atih is 
satisfied that we have not, and leads us on. Up hill 
and down we went, the road not improving. We passed 
the village of Ain-Yebrud ; dogs barking, and a light or 
two faintly gleaming on the slope above us. The country 
now gets very rich, and we longed for daylight to shew 
us fully the noble groves of olives, figs, sycamores, and 
pomegranates through which we were passing, and with 
which hill and dale seemed clothed ; for the region, 
though fruitful, continued as hilly as before. Having 
descended into a beautiful grassy hollow beyond Ain 
Yebrud, covered with large olives, and apparently well 
watered, we looked about for our tents, for it was just 
such a place as we might have expected to find them 
in. But no tents are here. Abd-el-Atih takes it very 
quietly, and moves on, comforting us with the assurance 
that we shall find them at the next station, which is 
only an hour distant. An hour ! But it is now half- 
past eight ; the moon has set ; the road gets worse ; 
and we have not dined, nor had anything to eat since 
we left Jerusalem. We begin to fear that we have 
really passed our tents by the way, or that they have 
gone on to Nablus, and that we shall have either to 
follow them right on till four in the morning, or take 
shelter under some of the rocks upon our way. Un- 
fortunately our wrappers are with our tents, so that we 
shall have a hard bed and a thin covering, with per- 
haps enough of dew to drench us well. Yet, after all, 



AIN-EL-HARAMIYAH. 



347 



it did not seem so very hard a lot to lie down and 
sleep where Jacob had done the same, and to rest for a 
single night upon such sacred ground, and beneath the 
curtain of these benignant heavens. 

Our horses have not yet failed us, nor have they once 
stumbled, in spite of the darkness, and the roughness 
of the w r ay, though they seem plunging over mounds 
or through hollows of loose debris, which crackles beneath 
their flat iron hoofs, and into which they sink at every 
step above the fetlock. We are now evidently in a 
valley, and our road is the bed of a torrent, thick-laid 
with rounded stones, great and small. Tt is hard toil 
this, both for man and beast, specially in the darkness 
of night. Yet, through the preserving mercy of Him 
who slumbers not, we are borne safely along, — till at a 
bend of the wady, a gleam bursts upon us. Is it 
another village, or our tents ? Five minutes of suspense 
are all. The gleams multiply and move about. In a 
few minutes our servants are at our sides with the 
fenusses. Gladly we leap from our ponies, stiff and 
chill. Our resting-place is A in-el-Haramiyah. Com- 
fortable did our tents seem that night ; and how plea- 
sant it was to give thanks to our protecting God. It was 
now a little after nine ; and in less than half-an-hour, 
Mr Poynder and I sat down to our late dinner ; neither 
Mr Wright nor Mr Beddome having arrived. After 
waiting a little, we concluded that they had remained 
in Jerusalem all night, and meant to join us next day 
at Nablus. We were wrong. They had set out and 



348 



MR BEDDOME's NARRATIVE. 



were benighted. But it will be best to let them tell 
their own story, which Mr Beddome has so well done 
in the following pages, that I gladly insert it here, both 
because of its interest, and also tp complete the nar- 
rative of this night's adventures. 

Monday, 10th March. — This was the day of our departure 
from Jerusalem, and the morning was occupied in prepara- 
tions for the journey, and taking leave of our friends on 
Mount Zion. 

About two o'clock in the afternoon our servants were 
sent forward with the tents and baggage, with orders to en- 
camp for the night at Beeroth. Dr Bonar and Mr Poynder 
followed soon afterwards, leaving Mr Wright and myself, 
with the dragoman, to finish our packing. 

After various delays, Hadji Ismael came to tell us that 
he could not complete his arrangements till the next day, 
and proposed that we should go on with two of the mule- 
teers, and that he would join us at Xablous, our next en- 
campment. We did not like the prospect of travelling 
alone with these guides, but the dragoman assured us there 
was no danger, and that we should soon overtake the rest of 
our party. 

It was about an hour before sunset when we passed out of 
the Bethlehem gate, and struck into the road which winds 
along the eastern slope of the upper Pool of Gihon. One 
of the muleteers, a tall powerful Arab, named Assaad, now 
took the lead, mounted on a mule ; the other a Nubian, 
followed behind us, driving a donkey laden with some of 
the baggage. Leaving on our left the road which leads to 
the ancient Gibeon, we took a north-easterly direction, and 
for rather more than half an hour, Jerusalem was still in 



ME. BEDDOME'S NARRATIVE. 



349 



sight. Again, and again, we turned our horse's heads to 
gaze, as for the last time, upon the city. It was an impres- 
sive sight, and one never to he forgotten. The white domes 
of the houses, now gilded by the rays of the setting sun, 
stood out in hold relief against the dark background of hills; 
and far in the distance was stretched the long blue range of 
Moah. But night was drawing on, and we must proceed. 
Yellah, Yellah, (get on), (get on), shouted our Arab guide, 
and turning into the path again, we soon lost sight of Je- 
rusalem. After three hours, Beeroth was to be seen on a 
high ridge of hills before us, and in an hour more, Ave were 
climbing the steep and rugged path which leads to the vil- 
lage. It was now quite dark, and we could see no tents. 
I was about to fire off my pistol as a signal to our friends, 
when Assaad placed his finger on his lips, and made signs 
that we should proceed ; so, thinking that they had gone to 
Bethel, about two hours further, and hoping to find the 
tents there, we rode on again, Assaad leading the way as 
before. The path was now very rocky, and strewn with 
large stones, so that in the dark we had great difficulty in 
guiding our horses, and were often obliged to dismount, and 
lead them. The moon was up, and shed its welcome light 
on our path. 

It was past nine o'clock when we began to toil up the 
steep ascent to Bethel ; soon we could plainly hear the bark- 
ing of dogs, a sign that the village was near. For a short 
time we had lost sight of Assaad, who had gone on in front, 
as we began to ascend the hill ; now, he met us at the top, 
saying, Mafeesh, mafeesh, (nothing), (nothing). Certainly 
there were no tents to be seen ; and we began to feel some 
alarm. It seemed unlikely that our friends should have 
gone beyond Bethel. We remembered now the mysterious 
signs made by Assaad, as we were passing Eeeroth, and we 



350 



MR BEDDOME'S NARRATIVE. 



began to suspect that he had some design in leading us away 
from the tents. We dismounted, and sat down, thinking 
what to do next, when Assaad suddenly left us, and rode 
towards the village. In about a quarter of an hour he re- 
turned, and after some conversation with the Nubian, 
(which we could not understand), made signs that we should 
go further. We had now lost all confidence in our guides, 
and were inclined to return to Beeroth ; but, thinking that 
Assaad had perhaps obtained information about our friends 
in the village, after much hesitation, we decided to place 
ourselves under his guidance. So, mounting our horses, we 
turn into the rocky path again. Assaad leads, and we fol- 
low, the Nubian coming behind. We begin to feel very 
tired and hungry. It is past ten o'clock, and as the 
moon has gone down, it will not be easy to guide our 
horses in such a road without its light. 

As we rode on in silence, how often our thoughts went 
back to that time, when a solitary traveller from Beersheba, 
weary with his journey, lay down to rest on these hills, and 
anxious as we were about our safety that night, it was plea- 
sant to think of those days, and that scene ; and to remem- 
ber that we too were cared for by Jacob's God. 

After about an hour, Assaad, who had been quickening 
his pace, suddenly stopped, and turning his mule, began to 
lead us back again ; we were not able to ask the reason of 
this, " yellah," " yellah," (get on), (get on), shouted the 
Arab : we had no choice but to follow him. Soon he struck 
into another path leading off to the left of that by which 
we had come, and again pushed on in front. The Nubian 
now makes signs for us to stop, which we do, and in a short 
time Assaad returns with the same dreary intelligence as 
before, >: mafeesh," " mafeesh." We now give up all hope 
of finding the tents ; it is nearly midnight, and quite dark, as 



MR beddome's narrative. 351 

the moon lias long gone down. Our guides sit down on the 
ground, and seem to have lost all their energy. But some- 
thing must he done, and we try hy signs to let Assaad know 
that we want his advice. He seems to understand, and, 
pointing first to the ground, at the same time laying his 
head on his hand, and then to the sky, says " Nahlous book- 
rah," (to-morrow). This evidently means that we are to 
sleep on the ground, and go on the next day to Nablous. 
However, we cannot make up our minds to do this. Then 
it is proposed to ride on all night to Nablous ; but we had 
already been eight hours on the road, and nine more was 
almost too much for man and horse without food. At last 
we determine, if possible, to get shelter for the night, as we 
knew, by the barking of dogs, at frequent intervals after 
leaving Bethel, that we had passed several villagers. 

We make signs to Assaad again, and he points to the 
hills before us, saying, " Ain Yebrucl Fellahin tayib," by 
which we understood that we were near to the village of 
Ain Yebrud, and that the villagers were friendly. So 
mounting once more, we tell our guide to lead the way to 
the village. Our path now winds round the base of a steep 
hill, thickly wooded to the top with olive and fig trees. In 
about half-an-hour we ascend another hill ; and in a few 
minutes more, Assaad stops before the door of a small hut 
in the village of Ain Yebmd. It is the house of the Sheikh ; 
and here we are to find shelter for the night. Assaad dis- 
mounts, and begins shouting and knocking by turns for 
admission. ,Soon the Sheikh comes forward, and after some 
conversation with Assaad from within, the door is slowly 
opened, and he makes signs for us to enter. A small oil 
lamp is burning on the wall, by which we are able to take 
a hasty survey of the house and its inmates. A large mud 
floor, with a small recess at one side for the females, present 



352 



MR beddome's narrative. 



at one view the whole interior ; the family had evidently 
retired to rest for the night ; the Sheikh and his wife, 
who had risen to speak to our guide, were standing at 
the entrance ; while from all parts of the floor, little 
faces are to he seen, staring in great astonishment at the 
" howajis " 

Now. to our dismay, Assaad began driving the horses and 
donkeys in after us ; we were going to remonstrate, but 
were relieved to see them driven into a lower chamber ; 
then the Sheikh spread a mat in one corner of the room, 
and made signs that we should lie down ; but we pointed 
to the smouldering fire and to our mouths, meaning that 
we were cold and hungry. 

So, the horses having been attended to, and the baggage 
brought in, we all sit round the fire. Meanwhile, the 
Sheikh's wife has brought out a large wooden bowl, and 
placing it in the centre of the room, begins kneading some 
flour. This was interesting to us, as an illustration of a 
Scripture custom. We had observed in the deseit, and 
afterwards in Palestine, that the people never keep their 
corn ground ; and I was often reminded of Abraham's 
charge to Sarah, when the angels arrived at his tent at 
Manire, i: Make ready three measures of meal." It w.as 
now past midnight when our hostess had to go through the 
tedious operations of grinding and kneading, to provide for 
the wants of her unexpected guests. 

Soon the children, who had been scanning us from all 
parts of the room, gather courage, come nearer and nearer, 
and at last sit down at the fire. One of the boys brings 
some wood, and throwing it on the hot ashes, we soon have 
a cheerful blaze. Our hospitable Sheikh now places before 
us some Arab bread and eggs ; all that he has to offer, but 
very acceptable to us hungry travellers. An animated con- 



MR BEDBOME'S NARRATIVE. 



353 



versation ensues between the Sheikh and our guide, in the 
course of which we gather that our host and his family arc 
natives of Bethlehem. We had been previously struck by 
the beauty of the children, and their resemblance in fea- 
tures to those we had seen at Bethlehem. 

After sitting about an hour, the Sheikh rises, and mak- 
ing signs that we should retire, he points to a mat in one 
corner of the room ; on this we lie down, and he throws an 
Arab cloak over us, rather an unwelcome addition this, we 
thought, but we did not choose to give offence by refusing it. 

We were not without fears, among such strange people, 
and in such a strange place. We doubted whether it would 
be safe to sleep ; but there was something in the simple 
open manners of this villager of Bethlehem, which inspired 
us with confidence. I doubt, too, if, tired as we w^ere that 
night, we had much will in the matter ; so, placing our 
loaded pistols at hand, and committing ourselves to the care 
of One who never sleepeth, we were soon in a sound slumber. 

As soon as the streaks of dawn came through the chinks 
of the roof, and the one solitary window, all the family were 
astir. The little Bethlehem boys came crowding round us, 
and w r e were soon very good friends together. Mr Wright's 
.skill as a Hakim seemed to be known, for one poor boy, 
whom we had not seen before, and who was afflicted with 
some cutaneous disease, was now brought to us by his 
mother. Mr Wright gave her some medicine, for which 
she seemed very grateful. 

Before six o'clock our horses were brought to the door, 
and Assaad came to say that he was ready to start. We 
were anxious, if possible, to find our friends before the tents 
were struck ; and it became necessary first to decide in what 
direction we should commence our search for them. Assaad 
insisted, for some time, that we should go on to Nablous ; 



354 



MR BEDDOME'S NARRATIVE. 



and, as it afterwards proved, we should have done well to 
have trusted implicitly to his guidance ; but, being under 
a strong impression that we had passed the tents in the 
night, after some hesitation, we decided to retrace our steps 
to Beeroth. 

Quitting Ain Yebrad, we took a more direct route to 
Beeroth than that by which we had come in the night. 
Soon we entered a deep valley or gorge in the hills ; the 
road appeared to have been cut out of the solid rock, and it 
w r as so smooth, that my horse fell more than once. It was 
about nine o'clock, w T henwe reached Beeroth, but there were 
no tents there, nor could w-e get any information about our 
friends from the villagers. We rested about an hour at the 
khan of the village, and obtained such refreshment as the 
Arabs could give. Now we had nine hours journey before 
us to Xablous, and as this was as much as we could accom- 
plish before nightfall, we were soon in our saddles again. 
About mid-day we passed Ain Yebmd on our left, and de- 
scending the hill by a steep path, we halted at a well about 
a mile from the village. Many women had come down to 
the well ; some were washing clothes by beating them with 
sticks on large stones ; others were filling their earthen pit- 
chers with water, and raising them to their heads by the 
help of their companions. It was a scene full of interest to 
us, as calling up many an incident of patriarch allife. The 
country immediately surrounding this village is in a high 
state of cultivation now. During the morning w T e passed 
through many olive and fig plantations, and saw the vines 
growing luxuriantly on the hillside. There was an air of 
active industry about the people in the villages of this dis- 
trict, which I observed no where else in Palestine. The 
ancient terraces which are to be seen on almost every hill- 
side between Hebron and Galilee, and which are g?n Q rally 



MR BEDDOMF/S NARRATIVE. 



355 



lying neglected without any signs of cultivation, were here 
planted with vines, fig-trees, and olives. Some of these 
terraces were being prepared for the young trees, at the 
time we passed through Ain Yebrud. The stones were col- 
lected together in heaps, leaving a rich mould of a dark-red 
colour, very like that to be seen in our own country, in parts 
of Devonshire. 

Soon after quittng Ain Yebrud, we overtook a large drove 
of asses, laden with sacks of corn and fruits, and attended 
by about a dozen Arabs. Assaad told us they were going 
to Nablous, with provisions for the Latin convent ; and as 
they seemed to be friendly with our guides, we determined 
to keep them company the rest of the way. At the same 
time we were joined by another of our dragoman's muleteers, 
who had been sent forward with Mr Graham's baggage. 
Our path now became very rugged, and sometimes the horses 
could hardly keep their footing. We passed many villages, 
and almost every hill top was marked by ruins as the site 
of some ancient city. 

After about three hours our path descended upon a wide 
plain called Wady el Lubban. At the north-west end of it, 
and at a considerable elevation, is the village of Lubban, 
believed to be the ancient Lebonah of Scripture. "We had 
just entered the path which descends to this plain, when we 
became aware that our Arab horseman was following us at 
full gallop ; he pulled up suddenly when he had overtaken 
the foremost of our party, and kept with us till we had 
reached the plain, lie was well mounted, and fully armed, 
carrying the long spear used by the Jordan Arabs. Not a 
word is spoken, but it is quite evident with what feelings 
the new comer is regarded. Hitherto the party had been 
straggling along the path, but now all draw up closely 
together, and each one takes the precaution of keeping near 



356 



MR BLDDOME S NATtEATiVE. 



to his neighbour. We had been told at Jerusalem that the 
tribes east of the Jordan frequently make incursions on the 
inhabitants of the western bank, at the beginning of barley 
harvest, in search of plunder. Doubtless the Arab had come 
to reconnoitre our party, but we were well armed ; for which 
reason, probably on this as on other occasions, we were 
unmolested. At the bottom of the hill he left us, and gal- 
loped quickly awa}^ 

We had quitted the territory of Benjamin, and were now 
in that of Ephraim. For more than an hour our way lay 
across the Wady el Lubban. It is well cultivated ; millet 
and Indian corn being the chief productions. From this 
valley we were ushered into an extensive plain, reaching 
eight or ten miles northward, and in breadth three or four, 
and bounded on either side by ranges of lofty hills. We 
came upon several villages at the entrance to this plain 
larger than those we had passed before. Crossing the plain, 
we made our way close under the western range. We had 
been nearly twelve hours on horseback, and it was now quite 
dark ; yet we knew by the map that we were still some dis- 
tance from Nablous. All seemed to feel the fatigues of the 
day, and we rode on in silence for the next two hours, 
broken only at intervals by the droning song of the Arabs. 
At such a time, and in such scenes, one's thoughts go back 
to the past, and as I looked on that long line of asses laden 
with sacks, and driven hy old grey-bearded Arabs, I often 
thought of Joseph's brethren as they travelled, in just the 
same way, from Egypt to their home in Canaan. 

After about two hours we enter another smaller valley 
lying east and west ; on either side rise the lofty mountains 
of Ebal and Gerizim ; we could not be far now from Jacobs 
well, but it is too dark to see anything. Proceeding along 
this valley, about a mile and a half, we enter Nablous, the 
Sychar of Scripture. 



ME BEDDOME'S NARRATIVE. 



857 



Threading our way through a labyrinth of small streets, 
we draw up at the gate of the Latin convent. After knock- 
ing for some time a door is opened, and our friends pass in 
one by one with their sacks of corn, and the door is closed 
again. Assaad now leads the way through the city, and 
at the other side in a grove of olive-trees, to our great joy, 
we find the tents. It was indeed a welcome sight to us, 
who had been fifteen hours in the saddle that day. Our 
friends were as much surprised as amused to hear of our 
adventures, having supposed that we had remained with the 
dragoman at Jerusalem. 

It appeared that they had pitched the tents the previous 
night some little distance beyond Ain Yebmd, so that, had 
we followed Assaad's advice, we should have found them 
before breakfast time in the morning. 

However, we had much cause to be thankful in looking 
back on the events of those two days ; and such mishaps, 
though unpleasant at the time, afford to the traveller a plea- 
surable retrospect afterwards. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



AIN EL-BARAMIYA IT SIXJTL TURMUS-AYAH — SILUX — LUBBAX — JACOB'S 

WELL — NAB LOUS — SAMARIA SANUR JENIN. 

Ain El-Haramiyah, Tuesday, March 11. — Last 
night's darkness prevented us knowing the nature of 
our tenting place. This morning I went out at half- 
past six to survey it. The air was chill, but the sky 
cloudless, and a sharp west wind was finding its way 
down the valley. We had encamped upon a bed of 
crimson anemones, on a small level spot, above the 
bed of a dry torrent, but in the hollow of a deep ravine ; 
its western side precipitous, its eastern gradual in its 
acclivities. Beside us were the ruined walls of a large 
square building, probably an ancient reservoir or cistern, 
once fed by the Ain, a fountain from which the place 
takes its name. This spring is not now connected with 
the cistern, but bursts out from the foot of the precipi- 
tous rocks on oar west ; or at least, I should say, upon 
our left ; for the wady is not due north and south. I 
examined the spring, and found its water excellent, 



ephkaim's fruitful fields. 



359 



and, I suppose, perennial -; for it is a genuine A in, 
not a B'V, nor a Bivkeh, welling still out of the moun- 
tain-rock, as it Las done for ages. The place is beauti- 
ful ; not only carpeted with flowers and plants, but 
hung all round with them, — the anemone in the sward, 
the cyclamen in the crevices, and the maiden-hair shak- 
ing its light tresses over the face of the rock. The hills 
on the east of us, rose in an amphitheatre of terraces 
above our tents. Of these I counted thirty-six, rising 
tier above tier, to the very top, all planted with figs 
and olives. 

At nine we started, our American friends along with 
us. We were very greatly obliged to them for guidance 
as well as company, — our own dragoman not yet having 
made his appearance. We passed up several rocky 
ravines, all carefully cultivated and terraced to the top. 
Though the road was stony and uncared for, yet the 
valleys themselves are exceedingly rich, and bear good 
marks of the hand of the husbandman. Yon fellah 
before us, breaking his fallow ground with the axe or 
hoe, is only one specimen of the care bestowed upon 
this fertile region, which is the southern part of 
Ephraim's fruitful fields ; for during our night ride we 
had passed out of Benjamin into Ephraim. These 
olive-planted terraces and hills are portions of Joseph's 
" fruitful bough" (Gen. xlix. 22), and shew us some- 
thing of the " precious fruits put forth by sun and 
moon" (Deut. xxxiii. 14), "the choice things of the 
ancient mountains, the precious things of the lasting 



360 



CITIES BY THE WAY. 



hills." These orchards of fig-trees, extending for miles 
on each side of us, and these olives, on which the sun- 
shine is softly quivering, what witness do they bear to 
the excellence of Ephraim's fruitful land ! 

At a quarter to ten we came to the foot of the round 
hill where Sinjil stands. We see a tomb, and some 
ruins, with trees ; but to visit the village would take us 
out of our way. We passed large flocks of sheep, and 
over beds of bright anemones ; not now crimson, as 
hitherto, but of all colours, blue, lilac, and white. A 
little way on, we came into a less fruitful region, w T ith 
more of the thorn than the fig or olive. 

At half-past ten we came within sight of Turmus 
Ayah, or, as Abd el-Atih gives it, Turm-es-Sayah, 
which, he says, means the hall of Saj T ah, a large village 
in the plain. On the top of the hill to the left, we saw 
Jiraba. At this point, we turned out of our way to 
the right, in order to see £ ilun. At the point of diver- 
gence we met a peasant, who at once undertook to be 
our guide Girding up his loose garments, he set off 
before us, leading first through the plain to Turm-es- 
Sayah and Sunah ; then up a low hill, north of these ; 
then down into a hollow, surrounded by black, stony 
hills, with thistles and thorns everywhere. On the top 
of the hill before us we observed one or two olives, and 
moving in that direction, we soon found ourselves 
asci tnding the long sloping hill on which stood the an- 
cient Shiloh, now Silk. On getting a considerable 
way up the slope, we came to a somewhat massive 



SHILOH. 



361 



ruin, which looked not unlike a Christian church. Well- 
hewn stones, and the broken capitals of three Corin- 
thian columns, with other ornamental work, shew that 
small as the building was, some cost had been bestowed 
on it. Our guide called this the Mosque of Setin, — 
that is, " the sixty/' 

From the mosque Setin a few minutes set you down 
amid the ruins of Silun, which is, I think, beyond ques- 
tion the ancient Shiloh, where, for several centuries, 
from the days of J oshua, the Tabernacle of the Lord 
had its resting-place. Next to J erusalem, this may be 
called the most sacred spot in Palestine. It lies on a 
small hill, or rather eminence, above which rise higher 
hills like an amphitheatre, with undulations all around, 
save to the southward, in which direction it looks down 
upon a fine plain or valley, which, stretching for miles 
away, seems like a great avenue between hills leading 
up to the mountain sanctuary. If one could suppose 
Taanath-Shiloh (J osh. xvi. 6) to be in this neighbour- 
hood, there would be some propriety in fixing it down 
yonder where this great avenue begins, for the name 
means the " entrance to Shiloh/' 

The ruins scattered over the undulations of this emi- 
nence, are very extensive. There are no remains of 
tower or gateway, of porch or colonnade ; the stones which 
lie on such heaps around are not of large size, and shew 
no carving ; there are indeed broken walls, lines of 
streets, traces of house-foundations and the like ; but 
nothing to intimate grandeur. The situation is very 



362 



THE DESOLATION. 



noble, commanding not only the plain immediately 
below, but the openings of several valleys which shoot 
off in different directions, and up which the multitudes 
of Israel, flocking to the feasts of the Lord, must have 
seen the sanctuary afar off, and been seen as they joined 
their several streams in the valley below, and poured 
upward to the holy place. I wandered over the ruins, 
from mound to mound, and wall to wall ; then gather- 
ing some of the wild-flowers that grew around, I sat 
down on a broken wall to look round upon the scene, 
and to read the passages of Scripture referring to the 
place. Such stony desolation I had not yet seen. At 
Beitin the rums were intermingled with the natural 
rocks ; but here we see endless heaps of mere debris. 
The fineness of the afternoon helped to give a cheering 
aspect to the ruins ; the sunshine at least took off the 
excessive gloom, which, when clouds and shadows are 
overspreading these hills, must be oppressive. How 
that passage of Jeremiah rung in our ears, " Go ye now 
unto my place which was on Shiloh, where I set my 
name at the first, and see what I did to it for the 
wickedness of my people Israel/' (Jer. vii. 12). 

We remained here some considerable time, loathe to 
leave so interesting a spot. At length we mounted, and 
began to descend. The hollows are in tolerable culti- 
vation ; all the land being under the plough, and crops 
shooting up ; the beans already six inches high, and 
the lentiles in luxuriance. We now (at twelve o'clock) 
turned slightly south-west, and in half an hour came 



VIEW OF JEBEL ESH-SHEIKH. 



363 



opposite the tillage of Leban or Lubban, the ancient 
Lebonah, on the low slope of a hill to the left of us. 
Here we sat down to lunch with our American friends, 
whose companionship throughout the day we had en- 
joyed. The plain before us was green and beautiful, 
girdled with hills. Leaving Lubban a little after one 
o'clock, we observed, on the top of a hill to the left, Es- 
Sauleh* as we passed through a glen some four or five 
hundred yards wide, with well-tilled fields, and olive- 
sprinkled slopes. This glen, I suppose, is Wady el- 
Lubban. "Winding round the hill, we came upon 
Es-Sauleh or Salieh. Our guide informed us here, 
that all this ground once belonged to Kiug David; that 
the town was built by Solomon ; and that here one of 
his sons was buried, called Sauleh ! 

We now ascended a rugwd hill to the north-west. 
On our right we saw Zatarah, on the top of a low hill, 
where there were some ruins and square buildings. 
Farther off, also to our right, on the slope of a hill, we 
saw Ydmah. On this height over which we are pass- 
ing, we first caught sight of the Great Hermon, Jebel 
esh-Sheikh, the " royal mountain," the most southern as 
w^ell as the highest peak of Anti-Libanus, 10,000 feet 
high, and above eighty miles distant from us at this 
moment. Even at this distance how it towers! So 
clearly is it brought out in all its parts by the gleam of 
its snows in the sunlight, that one could scarcely think 

* I give this name as our guide gave it ; but I suppose it is the same 
as Dr Robinson calls Es-Sawieh. vol. ii. p. 272. 



364 



VILLAGES. 



it half so far off. It must be visible much farther off 
than this ; and, were it not for the intervening hills, 
would be seen in Jerusalem. No doubt this was one of 
the objects on which Moses looked, from Pisgah, when 
he saw "that goodly mountain, even Lebanon/' As 
there are no hills of any height all up the Ghor of the 
Jordan, there would be nothing to intercept the eye of 
the dying saint, till it rested upon Hermon. 

As we descended the height we came upon the vil- 
lage of Howarah. The valley or ravine is very rugged 
and stony, without a tree, though at the bottom there 
is good soil, on which crops are growing. A woman is 
cutting down the thorns at one part of the hill for fuel, 
reminding us ol the thorns ready for the fire, so often 
given us as a figure of the unfruitful soul. We saw 
several villages to the left, that is westward, A in Abiis ; 
more to the left, or south-west, K'Aza ; the right Beitah. 
About half-past three we passed Howarta, a village to 
the left ; a little farther, on the same side, on one of 
the slopes of Gerizim, Kefer Kullin, and on the oppo- 
site side Anupta, circled with its olives. We now 
began to wind round Gerizim, or Jebel et-Tuv as it is 
called ; and as we did so, Mount Ebal came in front of 
us. The sun was now getting low and Gerizim was 
intercepting his radiance, though he had perhaps an 
hour yet of his descent to make. We were impatient 
to reach Jacob's Well, and afraid lest the shadows should 
overtake us. So we pushed on, and in a short time 
were wandering amid the ruins and wild-flowers that 



BIB. YAKUK 



365 



surround its mouth. The broken pillars, crumbling 
walls, shattered stones, we did not take much interest 
in. Though above a thousand years old, they were to 
us merely the memorials of the superstition, which, 
throughout this land, has sought to materialize every- 
thing, and to substitute for the spiritual, the sentimental 
or the sensuous. The flowers were various and beauti- 
ful, reminding us of One who so often used them in 
his holy lessons. They spoke to us more of Him than 
did the ruins which lie scattered on all sides. 

A large arch or vault, on a level with the ground, 
covers the mouth of the well, and forms a small, square 
chamber above it. Into this we scrambled down, in 
order to see into the well, which, like many eastern 
wells, seems to narrow at the top, making the aperture 
much smaller than the main-shaft. We were sadly dis- 
appointed at finding no mouth at all, nothing but broken 
stones covering the whole surface of this chamber, in 
the centre of which the mouth of the well should have 
been. A dozen of the natives were hanging about the 
ruins, some holding our ponies, the rest doing nothing ; 
so wo called them and asked to be shewn the aperture. 
We were told, that recently some heavy rains had 
loosened part of the arch, and brought down a mass of 
debris upon the hole. We asked if it could not be re- 
moved. They shook their heads. We tried to remove 
it ourselves, but in vain ; nor was our attempt quite a 
safe one, for had the stones thus jammed together and 
filling up the space given way, we might have seen 



366 



MOUTH OF WELL. 



more of Jacob's well than we had any desire to do.* It 
was sufficient to know from good authority that the 
well was about ten feet in diameter, + seventy-five feet 
deep, and that sometimes there was water in it, and 
sometimes again almost none. The chamber over the 
mouth, in which we now were, may possibly have been 
what has been suggested, " a resting-place for the weary 
traveller "X but it is as likely to have been part of the 
substructures of the church, — a cell where the altar 
stood as an early writer affirms. § 

Finding that we could make nothing of the interior 
of the well, we came up out of this chamber and took 
our seat upon the ledge, as once the Lord had done, 

* The Jerusalem Itinerary (a.D. 333) though referring to the scene at 
the well (John iv.) can hardly be said to speak of the actual well, but only 
of " Sechar" where it was. After mentioning Neapolis (N&blus), and Mons 
Agazaren, and Sechim, the old traveller adds, "inde (*. e. from Sechim) 
passus mille, locus est cui nomen Sechar, unde descendit mulier Samaritana 
ad eundem locum ubi Jacob puteum fodit," &c. And then he adds, in 
reference to Sechar, "ubi sunt arbores plantani quos plantavit Jacob, et 
balneus qui de eo puteo lavatur.'' Jerome speaks of Paula's entering a 
church built on the side of Garizim, "circa puteum Jacob " (Epitaph. 
Paulae). The ruins of this church are often referred to by the pilgrims 
and writers of succeeding ages. " Historia dell Antica e Moderna Pales. 
tina, dal Vincenzo Bendini"' (1641), Part ii. p. 39. " El devoto peregrino 
y viage de Tierra Santa, per Antonio del Castillo," (1666) "esta toda 
arruinada," p. 301. See " Narrative of Mission of Inquiry," &c. p. 212. 
Dr Wi 1 son's Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. 54. Br Robinson's Bibl. Res. 
vol. ii. 284 ; vol. iii. 132. 

t This is greater than the western well of Beersheba, which was nearly 
six feet, but less than the eastern, which was twelve. These were, how- 
ever, not nearly so deep as this of Jacob. 

* Narrative of Mission, etc , p. 212. 

§ Bonifacius. cited by Quaresmius. in Dr Robinson, vol. ii. p. 284. 



SCENE AT THE WELL. 



367 



more weary than we, for he had walked since morning, 
and it was hot noon when he reached this spot. We 
were not much fatigued, and even though we had been, 
the evening air was enough to revive us. The after- 
noon had been altogether one of the most thoroughly 
delicious that we had ever enjoyed ; the mild sunshine, 
the soft breeze, and the slight haze that took off the 
heat, while it did not dim the blue, all combining to 
make the scenes we have traversed doubly beautiful 
In no light could we have seen them all to greater 
perfection. The scene, the sky, and the hour, well 
suited each other. So we felt, as we sat down with our 
Bibles to read together the fourth chapter of the gospel 
of John. The ledge on which we were sitting was not 
the same as existed in ancient times, though there must 
have been a raised ledge or low wall, like that of Beer- 
sheba, on which the Lord sat ; but the well was the same ; 
the hills were the same ; the vale was the same ; the road 
leading westward to the city was the same, and the way 
northward to Galilee, which the Lord was about to take, 
was the same ; only the time of day was different, for 
the mountain shadows were lengthening, and Gerizim 
was intercepting the rays of the sun, that then beat with 
its full noon-force upon His head. One may conceive 
how the words sounded then, " If THOU KNEWEST THE 
GIFT OF God, and who it is that saith TO THEE, 
Give me to drink ; thou wouldest have asked 
OF him, and he would have given thee living 
water/' (John iv. 10). 



368 



FBAL. 



Then mounting our horses, and giving a last look to 
the spot, we went down the slope ; for the well is on a 
slight elevation, a prolongation of the base of Gerizim. 
Glancing at Joseph's tomb as we passed, we went up 
the valley,* with Gerizim on our left, and Ebal on our 
right. On Ebal we observed numerous rock-cut tombs ; 
and all along that side of the mountain wall, we were 
struck with the ruggedness of the grey basaltic rocks, 
that give such solemn grandeur to the mountain of the 
curses. The grey was slightly interspersed with green, 
and there were olives here and there ; but the aspect of 
the rock was wild and bleak ; not so terrible as the red 
glare of Sinai ; but giving that peculiar aspect of me- 
lancholy dreariness, which the grey colour of the rock 
seems always to impart, as in the Coolin hills of Skye, 
whose jagged peaks and bold grouping remind one of 
Sinai, while their grey sides and top recall Ebal and its 
fellows. Joshua's altar on the hill is gone (Josh. viii. SO) ; 
his great stone w 7 hich he set up under the oak is roiled 

* The Moslem Wely over Joseph's tomb, takes away the interest attach- 
ing to such a place, if it be really the patriarch's place of sepulture. It 
may be so, and perhaps marks the site of the ancient Skechem, for that 
town must have been nearer the well than the modern Nablus. Jacob 
would not have dug a well two miles from his place of abode. Eastern 
towns like Hebron, have frequently changed their places, even while retain- 
ing the locality, creeping up and down a hill or valley, as convenience or 
safety suited. Sychar may not have been so far up the valley as Nablus, 
but nearer the well. Neapolis and S3 T char may have corresponded to each 
other as did Kainopolis (Bezetha) and Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Itine- 
rary makes Neapolis, Sechim, ar.dSichar, different places. Van de Velde 
mentions Askar at the foot of Ebal, which he takes to be the birth-place 
of Judas. It must be By 'kar. 



NABLUS. 



369 



away (Josh. xxiv. 26) ; the Amen of Israel's thousands 
does not echo from rock to rock ; but this is the valley 
where the multitude gathered, and somewhere on this 
road must have stood the stone with its shadowing oak.* 

We soon come in sight of Nablus, and hear the mirth 
of young voices. Fifty or sixty children are playing 
on the slope at the eastern gate of the city. They shout 
and laugh as we pass, not appearing over civil. We 
do not enter the town, but turn slightly to the left, and 
keeping along the outside of its walls, we reach its west 
end, where, upon some olive-crowned hillocks, we find 
our tents. It was still good twilight, so that we could 
enjoy the scene before the darkness shut it out. 

Late in the evening, after we had gone to rest, Mr 
Wright and Mr Beddome arrived, weary and hungry. 
Of their journey we have already given an account. 

Ndblus, Wednesday, March 12. — At the untimely 
hour of three this morning we were awakened by the 
arrival of our dragoman and Mr Graham. They had 
not left Jerusalem till yesterday at four, and had 
pushed on in the darkness, over the rocky road, reach- 
ing Nablus in eleven hours. Haji Ismael's horse had 
fallen more than once, though without injury to. man 

* No one seems to have measured the height of either Gerizim or Ebal. 
Buckingham speaks of their not exceeding seven or eight hundred feet 
above the valley. But their height above the sea-level must be greater. 
They are nearly equal in height ; but Olin seems to think Gerizim the 
higher of the two. Maundrel gives the preference to Gerizim for "plea- 
santness," though he does not think that either has much to boast of. 

A a 



370 



THE VALE OF NABLUS. 



or beast ; but Mr Graham's energetic and sure-footed 
grey mare had never stumbled. 

At a quarter past six, I set out for a stroll. I 
wished to have climbed Gerizim, which lay close behind 
our tents, and is not much above eight hundred feet in 
height ; but the morning was so breezy, that I had to 
content myself with walking a little way up beyond 
the olives and prickly pears which fringe its base. 
Passing the Turkish burying-ground, I went first 
along the western slope, and then returning, went more 
directly up the hill a little way. The view of the long 
narrow town, from the height, is excellent. Wedged in 
between Ebal and Gerizim,* it has made the best use it 
could of the space allotted to it, and thrown round it- 
self a green fringe of every varied shriA and tree, olive, 
fig, mulberry, pomegranate, and even palm. Well- 
watered, though without a river, it has spread over its 
suburban fields a richness of vegetation, not equalled, 
perhaps, in the land, — at least, in southern Palestine. 
Unrained upon during summer, it has still its foun- 
tains, which scatter life through all its groves, and keep 
its verdure unwithering. How quietly it rests down 
there, with its domes and minarets, the rising sun 
shooting over its whole length, and the sharp breeze 
throwing up into the radiance the varied foliage of its* 
groves ! Yonder, too, rises Ebal, frowning above it, 

* On which of these mountains, were " the houses of the high places 
which the Samaritans had made/"' (2 Kings xvii. 29)? Probably both, 
and on many other hills. 



SOUNDS. 



371 



bare and precipitous, with an olive or a prickly pear 
here and there ; the rock-cut tombs along its lower 
slope, adding to the desolation which is associated with 
its name. Lying fully exposed to the sun of noon, it 
has, perhaps, a more parched and sterile aspect than 
its more shaded rival. 

The two mountains look very near each other, 
though one is deceived as to distance here. Yet it did 
not seem an unlikely thing that parties should answer 
each other from these heights. I asked specially as to 
this of Mr Rogers, the excellent Consul of Khaifa, who 
is at present here on business. He mentioned that it 
is quite a common thing for the villagers to call to 
each other from the opposite hills, and that the voice is 
heard quite distinctly. Having already, in the desert, 
found how far sound is carried, I did not think the dis- 
tance, between Ebal and Gerizim, at all greater than 
between some of those places where we had already 
tried our voices ; and I thought I could have under- 
taken to make my wishes known to any shepherd or 
fellah on yon rock, had there been one there at the 
time, or could I have addressed him in his native 
tongue.* 

* If Jotham's voice were at all like that of his people to this day, clear 
and shrill, he would find it easy enough to stand on the top of Gerizim, 
and call down to the inhabitants of the city beneath, " Hearken unto me, 
ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you," (Judges ix. 7). 
Jotham's allusion, in his parable, to the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine, 
suits well a spot like this, where all these trees must have been under his 
eye. As to the "bramble," (ver. 14), I know not what it was, unless the 
prickly pear, which abounds here. 



372 



THE SAMARITAN KEN1SEH. 



Returning from my walk, I joined the party, and we 
all proceeded to the Samaritan -synagogue. On our 
way we called on Mr Zeller, the missionary from the 
Church Missionary Society, who went along with us 
and introduced us. The synagogue seems to be in con- 
nection with the house of the priest, or high jDriest, as 
I suppose he is called. We were soon conducted to 
the Kenisek or synagogue, passing first through a small 
court. At the door of the synagogue the priest stopped 
us, and asked us to take off our shoes. We complied, 
and entered a very homely and rather gloomy chamber, 
in part laid with matting. To the left there was a 
curtain, meant perhaps for the veil before the Holy of 
Holies. This was withdrawn, and we stood at the en- 
trance of this recess till the priest brought out the roll. 
It certainly looked very venerable, though the tradition 
as to its being the work of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, 
(1 Chron. vi. 3, 4), or nearly three thousand five hun- 
dred years old, is of course a mere Samaritan fable, 
meant to lengthen out the pedigree of a late-sprung 
sect, and to give some weight to its pretensions, by sub- 
stituting antiquity of origin for evidence of authenti- 
city. We helped him to unroll the ancient scroll, for 
he permitted us to touch it as well as to see it. The 
two sticks or rollers round which it was wrapt were or- 
namented at both ends, though a little shabby and 
out of condition. The old Karaite book of the law, 
which we had seen at Jerusalem, was a book paged 
and bound like our own. shewing that the Jews do not 



SAMARITAN MEGILLAH. 



S73 



confine themselves to one form ; but this was a regular 
volume, " a volumen," a thing rolled and unrolled, a Jfe- 
gillah, such as that which Jeremiah took, and Baruch 
wrote in, and Jehudi fetched, and J ehoiakim cut with 
his penknife and burned, in the fire of his winter-house, 
(Jer. xxx vi. 2, 4, 27). The old man was most obliging, 
unrolling it considerably to let us see it fully. We 
then rose up to go (for all this took place upon our 
knees, as the roll was on the carpet), and the priest had 
put away the roll and drawn the curtain, when we re- 
membered that we had not examined specially the Ten 
Commandments, with which the Samaritans are said 
not to have dealt more honestly, than the Romanists at 
home. We returned, accordingly, and asked to see the 
volume again. Thinking that we wanted to see some- 
thing more, the priest brought forth another ancient roll, 
though evidently more modern than the other. As this 
is an exact transcript of the other, we were quite satisfied 
with it, and asked him to unroll it at the place which 
contains the Commandments. I looked for the tenth, 
and in its place I read, " Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God on Mount Gerizim." Ingenious devices of 
men, bent on bringing the word of God into conformity 
with their own systems and laws ! The Latin needs to 
erase a commandment from the divine statute-book, 
but in order to achieve this without being caught in the 
act of felony, he splits the tenth into two, while he blots 
out the second, that the number may still stand ten in 
his breviary. The Samaritan needs to add a com- 



374 



SAMARITAN SACRIFICES. 



mandrnent, and that he may do so without making 
eleven, he joins the first and second ! He forms a 
Bible to suit himself, leaving ' out or inserting as much 
as may be convenient ; — true representative of the " fool- 
ish people that dwell in Shechem/' whom the son of 
Sirach refused to count a nation.* 

We now quitted the synagogue, put on our shoes, and 
gave the priest a few piastres for his trouble. He took 
them gladly and wished us peace. What is this old 
man's hope, and the hope of the hundred and fifty 
Samaritans that worship here ? He has Moses, but not 
the prophets. He has Moses, but he has not Him of 
whom Moses and the prophets testify ! These Samari- 
tans, it seems, offer sacrifice ! But what is the meaning 
of sacrifice to men with a double veil upon their hearts ? 
It is not to them life for life, — the life of the substitute 
for the life of the sinner ; — and if not this, what is it ? 
But is the Samaritan worse than the Jew ? Perhaps 
he has not become so impenetrable, because he does 
not daily confront himself with so much truth ; but then 
he contemns more of Scripture, and wraps himself up 
in the five folds of the Pentateuch, treating psalms and 
prophets as a fable. The Samaritan sacrifices because 
he has access to Gerizim, where his fathers worshipped 
(John iv. 20) ; would the Jew sacrifice, if he had access 
to Moriah ? Certainly he would ; for the Christian argu- 
ment that cuts him most sharply is, that he is " without a 
sacrifice yet he dare not offer sacrifice any where in the 

* Ecclesiasticus li. 26. 



MOUNTAINS OF G I LEAD. 



375 



world save on the old hill of Oman, and on that he cannot 
set his foot. The restoration of Palestine to the Jews, 
in an unconverted state,, would be like the touch of a 
magician's rod, suddenly evoking an amount of slumber- 
ing Judaism, for which the world is not prepared. 

Returning from the synagogue, through the narrow 
and not over cleanly streets of the city, we soon break- 
fasted, and were ready to move off for Samaria. While 
standing for a few minutes to look around us once more 
upon the city and its guardian hills, we turned the eye 
eastward to get a glimpse of the mountains on the other 
side of Jordan, the mountains of Gilead. They were 
barely visible ; but one likes to take in all the features 
of a scene, the distant as well as the near. From these 
hills the Ishmaelites came " with their camels bearing 
spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down 
to Egypt" (Gen. xxxvii. 25) ; for it was to Israel's hills 
that Mizraim was indebted for the spices, with which 
she embalmed her dead. These hills were not only 
the dwellings of Israel's physicians ; but the " mountains 
of prey/' the strongholds of the warrior, " for because 
Machir was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and 
Bashan" (Josh. xvii. 1) ; out of these hills came forth 
Elijah the Tishbite (true representative of the ancient 
warriors of Manasseh and Gad), dow r n to this very spot 
where we now are, for through this gorge he must have 
passed to Samaria on his first visit to Ahab (1 Kings 
xvii. 1). From his own mountains he had from child- 
hood gazed upon Gerizim and Ebal, and as he comes 



376 



FRUITFULNESS. 



down to Israel, having in his hands both the blessing 
and the curse, he passes between these hills, which so 
truly represented the errand on which he had come. 
From these hills (at least from the southern parts of 
them) had Moses pointed out to Israel the spot where 
the blessing or curse would be pronounced ; " are they 
(Gerizim and Ebal) not on the other side Jordan by the 
way were the sun goeth down" (Deut. xi. SO), for Israel 
had seen many a sun set behind their summits. 

We now proceeded on our way, having for a little 
the company of Mr Rogers, to whom we were indebt- 
ed for much information. Striking down into the val- 
ley, we soon crossed its hollow of perhaps three hundred 
yards, and ascended the opposite or Ebal side, moving 
in a north-westerly direction. We saw olives and figs 
on all sides, the former in their usual ever-green, the 
latter putting forth their young green figs. Ploughs 
were at work in all the fields, and the sound of the 
ploughmen's voices was pleasant. The verdure was as 
yet but scanty, for spring was little more than begun, 
but we saw enough to tell us how rich the valley is, 
and could guess with what a luxury of flower and fruit, 
the summer is hastening to cover it. It was a goodly 
specimen of Ephraim's fruitful heritage. Nor was there 
any lack of villages, both far off and near. In front 
there was Zeita ; to our left, on the height, Beit- Uzin ; 
and then a quarter of an hour farther, Beit-Eba on a hill 
to the left. Just here we saw a sort of aqueduct, across 
the valley, another of the many evidences of cultivation 



DISTANT VIEW OF SEBUSTI EH. 



377 



around. At present it serves only as a mill-lead, but its 
twelve pointed arches were originally meant for some- 
thing more than this. Even in our own country we do 
not build such costly water-courses for common mills ; 
and though Dr Robinson speaks slightingly of it, in 
past ages, it may have done higher service, though 
whether an " ancient bridge/' as Richardson calls it, 
or a regular aqueduct to some of the villages or towns 
which covered the sides of this valley, one cannot say. 

We now turned to the right and entered a beauti- 
ful green valley, stretching beneath us to the left. 
We passed through fields of green corn, which had al- 
ready reached a height of eight or nine inches, so that 
in little more than a month they would be whitening 
for harvest. Scattered thickly over the hill-sides were 
the anemonies, large and tall ; fields of beautiful blue 
lupin ; the drop-hyacinth, with a profusion of other 
flowers, red, blue, and yellow, which my scanty botanical 
knowledge hinders me from attempting to name. Down 
in the valley to our left we saw the village of Deir-£heraf, 
too far off to be visited. 

We soon reached the height above Sebustieh (i.e., 
Samaria), nearly two miles from the city itself. The 
whole valley lay at our feet, with the old city in the 
centre, set upon the summit of a low, round, or rather 
oval hill (like Gibeon, though larger), and encircled, 
though at a little distance, with an entire girdle of 
towering hills, whose slopes were dotted all over 
with olives. It has been a noble city ; the noblest 



378 



MAGNIFICENT SITE. 



certainly that we had seen either in East or West. 
" Beautiful for situation " as J erusalem is, it does not 
equal this. London is not made to be seen, save from 
the dome of St Paul's ; nor is Paris, save from the towers 
of Notredame ; nor Alexandria, save from the topmast 
of some vessel ; nor Cairo, save from the pyramids. 
But this, the city of Omri, is made to be gazed upon. 
Set on a hill, in the midst of a vast mountainous am- 
phitheatre, ten miles at least in diameter, it cannot be 
hid. On every side it is visible, and in former days, 
with its circling colonnades and towering temples, it 
must have looked surpassingly noble. There is nought 
like it even in Palestme, whose hills and valleys seem 
as if specially laid out as sites for castles, and palaces, 
and cities. It is Ephraim's " crown " set round with 
jewels, his " wreath " all wrought about with flowers 
for the head of his " fruitful valley " (I sa. xxviii. 1). 
As we moved down the olive-wooded steep opposite it, 
we had an opportunity of seeing it fully. 

Passing into the hollow, we got a view of the city 
from the lower ground, and marked the intermixture 
of the ancient city and modern village ; the broken 
pillars on the slope, the ruined church on the height, 
the Arab houses between, and the stones rolled down 
into the valley. Ascending the steep path which leads 
up to the town, we entered it near the old church 
dedicated to John the Baptist," 5 ' whose connection with 

* Josephus tells us. that it was in Machaerus, east of Jordan, that John 
was beheaded (Antiq. xviii. 5. 2), and Eusebius quotes this passage of 



TOMBS OF SAMARIA. 



379 



this place, either in martyrdom or burial, is a mere 
legend of the fourth century. After examining the 
church we proceeded to the Moslem burying-ground, 
making our way through the crowd of natives, old and 
young, who surrounded us, to hold our horses, to gaze 
on us, to ask bakshish, and to offer us old coins for 
sale. 

The burying-ground occupies the highest part of the 
city, or at least of the hill, for it is a stone's cast be- 
yond the houses. It is quite overgrown with the iris, 
which (along with smaller plants and flowers) has not 
merely surrounded the tombs, but has got above them, 
and struck its roots into the crevices of the stones.* 
In the midst of this field of flowers and tombs, we sat 
down to gaze around. If the city looks well from the 
neighbouring hills, not less so do these hills look from 
the city. It was noon, eastern noon, and the whole 
stretch of valley was lighted up by an almost unclouded 
sun. Each swell and hollow, each rock and grey steep, 
with the innumerable patches or belts of olive, came 
out in the sunshine, while over a break or slack in one 
of the western hills, we saw the blue waters of the 
" Great Sea/' I counted the mountain tops in this 
great girdle, and found them upwards of forty in num- 

Josephus (Eccl. Hist, i. 11), shewing us that in the fifth century, Josephus' 
statement was still believed. 

* Though in root and leaf this Iris is quite like our own, yet in flower 
it is different, and much smaller. A root of it, which I took with me from 
these ruins, is growing vigorously in my garden. 



380 



FEATURES OF SAMAKIA. 



ber. We saw, in all directions, villages not a few ; of 
which, however, I only picked up the names of Bit- 
Imrim towards the north, Eginysinia towards the 
south, and Dir Sheraf, more to the west.* 

Samaria has " become desolate/' (Hosea xiii. 16), and 
these " mountains of Samaria" in which " the drunkards 
of Ephraim" trusted (Amos vi. 1), proved no defence 
against the Assyrian spoiler (2 Kings xvii. 6, 24). 
Yet, though the name of Shemer has passed away, and 
the city of Ahab is a broken potsherd, it is Samaria 
still. The unchangeable natural features are so many 
and so peculiar, that you feel this is still Samaria. 
Sweep Alexandria away, and then rebuild it, it is no 
longer Alexandria. There is not one outstanding natu- 
ral feature whereby to identify the new with the old, or 
lead to the spontaneous recognition of the well-known 
portrait. So of Tyre, so of Sidon, where the only point of 
resemblance is the old sea, which washes their sandy 
beach, and that may be any where. But J erusalem and 
Samaria sit quite apart. They do not depend for iden- 
tification, upon their walls, or towers, or temples, or 
even upon their ruins. They are so unique in site, and 
so marked in natural features, that no time can obli- 
terate the likeness. El-Kuds is still Jerusalem, and 
Sebustieh is still Samaria. The living daughter, in 
rags, and filth, and poverty, is the very image of the 
dead mother, in fl fine linen/' and gems, and splendour. 

* Were these some of the "places about Samaria," where Judas, the 
Maccabee, was entrenched ? 2 Mace. xv. 1. 



SAMARIA S FUTURE. 



381 



This hill on which I sit, is really the hill of Shemer, 
which Omri, the father of Ahab bought for two talents 
of silver, (1 Kings xvi. 24).* Omri, Ahab, Jezebel, J ehu, 
Ahaziah, have passed away. The armies of Shalma- 
nezer, and Benhadad, and Nicanor, are in dust. Judas 
the Maccabee, the bravest of the brave, no longer scours 
these hills, with his patriot army. Micaiah, Elijah, 
Elisha, no longer warn or counsel. The altar of Baal 
has vanished ; the temple of Herod has disappeared ; 
the Church of the Crusaders is a ruin ; the " graven 
images have been broken in pieces/' and the " idols 
made desolate/' (Micah i. 7). Yet it is Samaria still. 
The central hill, the broad valley, the girdling moun- 
tains and the far off sea, are all what they were three 
thousand years ago. 

The days of the " fat valley/' however, are not over, 
though the good news of peace, through the work of the 
Peacemaker, which Philip preached eighteen hundred 
years ago, are not now heard upon this hill ; though 
the " great joy" is no longer known within the walls of 
the city, yet the word fails not, and Samaria awaits the 
time allotted to her, " Thou shalt yet plant vines upon 
the mountains of Samaria, O virgin of Israel ; the 

* The hill of Shemer is much larger than Moriah, yet Omri paid only- 
two shekels of silver for it ; much less than David did for Oman's thrash- 
ing floor, (1 Sam. xxiv. 24 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 25). The son of Sirach calls 
the inhabitants of this city, "them that sit upon the mountain of 
Samaria," Ecclesiasticus 1. 26. Drusius and Grotius would change this 
to Mount Seir, but without authority. See their Annotations. 



382 



COLONNADE. 



planters shall plant them, and shall eat them as com- 
mon things/' (J er. xxxi. 5). 

Having walked for a little in this graveyard, and 
marked the view on all sides, we went down to the 
village again, and passing through it, found ourselves on 
the ridge of the hill at the commencement of a splendid 
colonnade; the remains, I suppose, of one of those mighty 
structures with which Herod the Great adorned the 
city. As we walked along round the sweep of the hill, 
in the midst of ploughed fields, and olive-trees, and 
masses of hewn stone, we were amazed at the length of 
this singular range of pillars.* Of broken columns, or 
fragments indicating the place where columns had been, 
we counted upwards of one hundred and forty, which, 
with nearly one himdred still standing, gave us at least 
two hundred and forty-four as the original number. 
This, however, I have no doubt is much short of the 
truth, as the rain is so complete, and the fragments so 
scattered, that the work of numbering the pillars is not 
an easy one, especially under such a withering sunshine 
as was coming down on us all the while. We now 
descended the hill on the north side, where the steep- 
ness is much the same as in other parts. "We saw here, 
more strikingly than on the other side, how completely 
the ruins had been rolled down into the valley, (Micah 

* Antonio del Castillo, in 1666, seems to have been greatly struck with 
this colonnade. He speaks of " magnificent ruins" and " whole streets of 
columns,"— " calles enteras decolupnas, que aun estan oyalgunas en pie," 
p 303. 



MERJ SANUR AND BURJ-SANUR. 



383 



i. 5-7). We observed here also fragments of pillars, 
indicating that the colonnade, just described, had ex- 
tended in this direction, encircling the hill like a crown. 

We now went on our way, still looking back and around, 
to admire the remains of the wondrous city. The day 
was getting cooler, though the sky was no less bright, 
and as we laid ourselves down on one of the slopes 
of the northern hills, upon a bed of rich anemonies, we 
gazed with increasing admiration, not merely on the 
ruined city, but on the matchless whole of the scene, out 
of which there rose up before us the memories of so 
many ages, and over which the afternoon sunshine was 
shedding down its softest brilliance. 

We now mounted the northern height, over which 
lies our road. The prospect from its summit was wide 
and noble ; the sea in the distance, a beautiful valley near, 
the hills about Nazareth on the north. About three 
o'clock we found ourselves in front of a fortress built 
upon a small hill, not very high, but quite sufficient to 
make the hold a strong one in old times. It is not, how- 
ever, connected with Jewish, but only with later Mahom- 
medan history. This hill-fort looks well, both at a dis- 
tance, and while we were winding round its base. It 
takes its name from the Merj-Sanur (plain or meadow of 
Sanur), in which it stands. This plain was dry enough 
when we passed through it, but is said to be a morass or 
lake in winter. Pleasant mountains gird it round. 

Somewhere to the left here, a little way on, the site 
of Dothan was pointed out. It is at the foot of a small 



S8i 



DOTH AN AND BLTHULIA. 



hill, and just in the very place where Jerome and Euse- 
bius place it, twelve Roman miles north of Samaria ; 
though far enough distant from the traditional site of 
Greeks and Latins, who set it down some six miles 
north of the Sea of Galilee.* The faithfulness of na- 
tive tradition to truth and history, through the long 
lapse of nearly 1 500 years, is strikingly illustrated in 
this case ; and not less striking is the illustration of the 
utter ignorance, both of geography and history, embodied 
in the topographical legends of monk and crusader.-f- 
The discovering of Dothan helps in fixing another site, 
that of Bethulia, mentioned in the book of Judith ; for 
Bethulia and Dothan (or Dothaim, as it is there called) 
could not have been far from each other, and both of 
them south of Esdraelon. We know it was near a 
"plain/' and a "valley/' and "fountains;'^ all of 
which marks would apply to the fort of Sanur. But 
the name, Sanur, being so different from Bethulia, we 
cannot identify these two places ; at the same time 
there is considerable probability that they are the same, 
and the fort of Sanur may be really an old one, though 
Dr Robinson thinks not. It has been a place of great 

* See Van de Velde's Syria and Palestine vol. i. p. 264:. That traveller 
may claim the discovery of the site. He visited the spot, whereas Lr 
Robinson, like ourselves, only had it pointed out at a distance. 

+ It is right, however, to notice that Jeic'ish tradition had preserved the 
true site of Dothan. " Half an hour south of Geser (which is two hours 
south of Engannim) is Dothan, at present Dotha, with a good fountain ; 
it is situated about four hours north of Sichem."— Zunz's Geography 
of Palestine, from Jewish Sources. 

X See Judith iv. C ; vi. 11 ; vii. 3, 18 ; viii. 3. 



FIRST GLIMFSE OF NAZARETH. 



£85 



strength, and quite the key of the valley. As we de- 
scended again, we saw several villages ; for all the 
region through which we have passed to-day, seems con- 
siderably more populous and fruitful than that which we 
saw yesterday. After riding through an extensive olive- 
forest, we again ascended, but almost immediately after, 
descended into the spacious plain of Sanur. Some miles 
to the eastward of us is the supposed site of Tkebez, be- 
neath whose walls Abimelech fell by the millstone 
(Judges ix. 50 ; 2 Sam. xi. 21). It is now called Tubaz. 

Again we ascended, and on the height we saw not 
only the hills of Nazareth, but got a glimpse of Nazareth 
itself, at least of one or two of the outlying houses, 
whose white roofs shone out clearly in the sunshine, 
though deeply sunk in the recesses of the ravine that 
cuts into the mountain. " Little Hermon " too lay be- 
fore us, its lights and shadows richly beautiful in the 
sunset ; while nearer us, in the same direction, rose the 
mountains of Gilboa, which we shall see more closely 
to-morrow. 

Moving on in the calm evening, we cheered the way, 
in some of these valleys, by snatches of hymns, ancient 
and modern, English and Latin.* 

* Of the last the following is a specimen. l< It is old and plain." 

quanta, qualia, 
Sunt ilia Sabbata, 
Quae semper celebrat 
Superna curia ! 
Quse fessis requies, 
Quae raerces fortibue, 

B b 



386 ENGANNIM. 

Thus beguiling the afternoon, we soon found ourselves 
at the head of a narrow ravine, through which we de- 
scended to Jenin. Its tall palm-trees caught our eye 
as we drew near, bright with mellow sunshine ; and 
the extent, as well as extreme beauty, of the plain on 
which we were entering, struck us greatly. This is the 
south-eastern extremity of the great plain of Esdrae- 
lon. The sun had barely set, when we dismounted and 
pitched our tents on the outside of the village, not far 
from the palm-group. As the shades of twilight began 
to fall, the scene grew more beautiful, a quiet solemnity 
seeming to take possession of it, and to recall the 
thought to other ages and other sunsets. We walked 
into the village, and saw what was to be seen. The 
amount of cleanliness was no greater here than else- 
where ; but the small clear stream* ran pleasantly 
through the midst of it, an indication of a certain 
amount of cleanliness and health. The stream comes 

Cum erit omnia 
Deus in omnibus ! 

Illic nec Sabbato 
Snccedit Sabbatum, 
Perpes laetitia 
Sabbatizantium ; 
Nec ineffabiles 
Cessabunt jubili 
Quos decantabimus 
Et nos et angeli. 

* Dr Robinson's " noble stream " is too strong an expression, unless 
understood comparatively, and according to the eastern standard, vol. ii. 
315. De Saulcy merely says, "a rapid spring furnishes ths adjacent 
gardens with an ample supply of pure water," vol. i. p. 82. This is the 
Ain, that gave the place its ancient name 2?/i-gannim. 



THE FOUNTAIN OF GARDENS. 



387 



down from some of the neighbourhood heights, and, 
after watering the village, passes through the plain, 
and empties itself into the Kishon. After dinner we 
came out for a moonlight walk, which we much enjoyed. 
The sky was cloudless, and the night as calm as we 
had known in Wady Sheikh or Ghurandel. The only 
noise was the sound of the stream, and this only deepened 
the stillness. The great plain, of course, was invisible, 
and the mountains a mere dull mass all round. But 
the minaret of the village mosque looked well, and 
the tall palms, more graceful than painter ever drew, 
stood out upon the blue sky, with the moonshine quiver- 
ing on their branches. 

We had now entered the territory of Issachar, on the 
borders of that plain, where he " rejoiced in his tents " 
(Deut. xxxiii. 18). This was his " pleasant land/' where 
"he saw that the rest was good/' (Gen. xlix. 15). It 
was quite a region for tents, as well as a most " pleasant 
land m " and this Jenin or .Engannim (Josh. xix. 2.1 ), 
this " fountain of gardens/' is a true specimen of its 
fruitful beauty. But it was a land which the stranger 
would covet because of its richness, and through which 
an invading army from the north-east would be sure to 
pass, on its way either to Samaria or Jerusalem. Hence 
rose Issachar's danger, and hence came his temptation 
to " couch between two burdens/' to " bow his shoulder 
to bear, and to become a servant unto tribute/' (Gen. 
xlix. 15). The lowland inhabitants of Stirlingshire 
had to pay dear to the Highland marauder, for their 



388 



THE BEDAWIN OF GILEAD. 



broad lands and rich fields ; and their " blackmail " 
seems to have corresponded to Issacher's " tribute/' 
It is the same, throughout Syria, to this day. You 
cannot get rich lands there, any more than at home, 
without paying well for them ; though it is in a pecu- 
liar way that prices find their level. If you get hold of 
a rich spot, whether at Urtass or Jenin, you must pay 
for it, if not in the shape of rent, at least in " blackmail/' 
to the Sheikh of the village, or the Rob Roy of the 
district. 

This part of the country is often disturbed. The 
wild Bedawin from the transjordanic mountains (Gilead 
or Bashan), cross the Jordan, and scour the fertile 
meadows. There were, besides, local disturbances, it was 
said at this time, rendering the district unsafe for tra- 
vellers, and our dragoman seemed sometimes to be 
visited w T ith fear of peril ; as much, however, we sus- 
pect, at the prospect of his " canteen " being plundered 
and his baggage stolen, as at any loss of life or property 
which we might incur. " My thingies/' as he called his 
goods and chattels, were always uppermost in his 
thoughts, whether it were the rain or the robber that 
threatened. To-day we met some parties of armed 
Bedawin, who, flourishing spear and gun, moved across 
our path, as if to reconnoitre. They merely looked at 
us, however, and passed on. Perhaps we were too many 
for them ; or, perhaps, we were misjudging their inten- 
tions ; for though fierce in aspect, they shewed no in- 
civility in word or deed. 



JENIN AND THE GREAT PLAIN. 



389 



I may close this day's record in the words of an old 
traveller, who was, however, travelling in the opposite 
direction to us : — u This was the pleasantest day's 
journey we had in our whole travel. I never saw more 
fertile ground and pleasant fields, and so much together, 
all the w r hole day from Mount Tabor to a village called 
vulgarly Jenine, but of old En-gannim, whereof we 
read, Josh. xv. 34. Near unto this village is the place 
where J ael beheaded Sisera. Engannim is distant from 
Mount Tabor twenty-two miles. It is a very pleasant 
place, having fine gardens and orchards, and waters 
about it."* 

Jentn, March 13. — Before dawn, strolled up one of the 
low hills westward of our tents. The sun soon rose and 
lighted up this vast amphitheatre, this Golisaeum of 
Galilee, nobler than Augustus ever planned, and reared 
for something else than a Roman holiday or the games 
of Emperors. What a breadth of champaign, and what 
a sweep of mountain all round L To the north, there 
were, first, the mountains of Gilboa, then little Hermon ; 
then, beyond these, the hills of Nazareth. These three 
seemed three parallel ranges, running from S.E. to N.W., 
the two first abutting upon the great plain, the last 
shutting it in on the north. Beyond these, in the far 
north, rose the Great Hermon, Jebd-es- Sheikh, reflect- 
ing the radiance of morning from his snows ; — a mag- 
nificent spectacle, light and shade upon his snow- 

* The Travels of Four Englishmen and a Preacher into Africa, Syria, 
Damascus, Canaan, Galilee, Samaria. &c. Begunne in the Yeere Jubile 
1600. London : 1612, p. 93. 



390 



Saul's last battle. 



wrapt peaks and ravines, thick gloom concealing all 
below ! On the far left, towards the west or north-west, 
Carmel terminated the view, and shut out the sea, Right 
east, not twenty miles off, beyond Jordan, lay Fahil 
(Pella), hidden, however, behind more hills than one. 

We started about half-past eight, riding through the 
village, and along the plain, by some ploughed fields, 
having Carmel full in view to the left. Our horses 
seemed greatly to enjoy a gallop along the plain, so we 
made no objection. We soon reached Gilboa,* and 
crossed a low spur of it, Jebel Ed-Duhi (Little Hermon) 
still before us. We tried to imagine the scene ot 
Saul's battle on this spot. Yonder, to the north, at 
Shunem, close by the foot of " Little Hermon/' was 
the camp of the Philistines. Here, where we now are, 
was Saul's encampment, right opposite the other, some 
five or six miles between. Each army had a range 
of mountains in the rear, for watching and defence. 
Saul, wounded in spirit and forsaken of God, knows 
not what to do. In the dead of night, accompanied 
by two men, he quits the camp, traverses the plain, 
and crosses yon western shoulder of Ed-Duhi, to the 
north of which Endor lies. There he consults the 
woman, and returns, ere morning, to the camp at 

* Dr Robinson says, that the name Gilboa (Jilbon) is not now known to 
the natives ; vol. ii. p. 326. Dr Wilson, a good Arabic scholar, says 
expressly that the natives spoke of Jebel Jelbun ; vol. ii. p. 88. Dr 
K., in his last edition, takes no notice of this. Richardson has given the 
same testimony as Dr Wilson ; and two witnesses to a positive, are of 
more weight, than one to a negative. 



JEZREEL AND SHUNEM. 



391 



Gilboa, to fight his last battle. He fights, and falls ; 
perhaps upon this very spot where we now are. The 
" archers hit him" (1 Sam. xxxi. 3), and, with his three 
sons, he fell down, writhing in agony, till the Amalekite 
came up and finished the work of death (2 Sam. i. 10). 

" Gazelle of Israel,* upon thy high places smitten ! 
How are the warriors fallen ! 
Mountains of Gilboa, 
No dew and no rain be upon you, 
And no fields of offering ! 

For there the shield of the warriors was cast away. 
The shield of Saul, 

Not anointed with oil." (2 Sam. i. 19). 

Jezreel, now named ZeHn, lay before us, with £hu- 
nem, now called Sdlam, behind it. We soon reached 
(about two hours from Jenm) the former, and halted 
for an hour to examine it ; as its prominence in Old 
Testament history gave it no small interest to us. The 
village of Zerin is much like other Arab villages, plea- 
sant-looking at a distance, but miserable inside. It 
sits, not on a hill, yet on an eminence sufficient to com- 
mand the view of the plain on all sides. Not content, 
however, with the view from the height itself, we re- 
solved to ascend the old square tower in the centre, 
which, in many respects, very much resembles one of 

* The word translated " beauty" in our version, is much more generally 
rendered " wild-roe," or gazelle ; and in the very next chapter (2 Sam ii. 
18) : — " Asahel was light of foot as one of the roes of the field." One in- 
clines, also, to translate it roe or gazelle, from seeing so many of those 
creatures on these very hills and plains. 



392 



VIEW FROM THE TOWER. 



our own border strongholds, such as Hermitage Castle 
in Liddesdale, or Norhani in Northumberland ; only it 
is by no means s<3 large or high. Entering its court 
we, with no small difficulty, climbed up by the help of 
broken stairs, projecting stones, and friendly shoulders, 
to the upper ledge of the wall, where we sat down 
to look about us. Behind us, at a little distance, 
was the range of Ed-Duhi, running nearly north-west. 
To the east rise the mountains of Gilead on the 
other side of Jordan. From these hills the prophet 
Elijah could see distinctly this palace of Ahab, and, 
beyond it, that Carmel to which he so often resorted. 
Jordan itself we did not see, but the plain slopes gently 
down towards it, and we discovered where it was. 
Many miles down, to the south-east, we could recognise 
Bethshan, now Beisan, in " the borders of the children 
of Manasseh," where " dwelt the children of Joseph, 
the son of Israel/' (1 Chron. vii 29). Yonder the Phi- 
listines, after the calamitous battle of Gilboa, " fas- 
tened Saul's body to the wall of Bethshan," (1 Sam. 
xxxi. 10). Across the Jordan yonder come the war- 
riors of Gad, the men of Jabesh-Gilead, by night, and 
carried off the body of their king, bearing it back to 
Jabesh for burning and for burial, (1 Sam. xxxi. 12). 
To the west we saw the Carmel range, and thought to 
trace the course of Elijah as, w r ith girded loins, he ran 
over the level plain, before the chariot of Ahab, a dis- 
tance of some twelve or fourteen miles. We tried to 
mark also the course of Jehu, when he came up from 



JEHU AND AHAB. 



393 



Ramoth-Gilead to Jezreel against J oram, son of Ahab. 
Where he crossed the Jordan we know not. It may 
have been somewhere south of the Jabbok, where Jacob 
crossed when he came to Shechem and Shalem, from 
Suceoth, (Gen. xxxiii. 17, 18). At any rate he would 
come up along the plain of the Jordan, turning the 
south-eastern flank of Gilboa, between that hill and 
Bethshan. Then his course would lie almost due west ; 
and driving up along the broad plain of Jezreel, he 
would be visible from such a tower as this, many miles 
off. That this castle on which we are standing " is the 
tower in Jezreel" (2 Kings ix. 17), I do not mean to 
say ; though no doubt this is the spot, and this more 
modern fort may have risen from the old foundations. 
The watchman on the tower announces Jehu's approach, 
" the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of 
Nimshi, for he driveth in madness/' (2 Kings ix. 20). 
J oram and Ahaziah prepare their chariots and go out 
to meet him, and they " met him in the portion of Na- 
both the Jezreelite." The south-eastern fountain, A in 
J alud, about a mile from the village, may thus very 
probably mark the site of the vineyard of Naboth, the 
fruitful well-watered spot which Ahab desired for a 
garden of herbs, (1 Kings xxi. 2). Between that well 
and the city must have stood AhaVs palace, for Naboth's 
u inheritance" was " hard by the palace of Ahab." The 
northern fountain, described by Dr Wilson,* from which 
the village is still supplied with water, may perhaps lay 

* Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. 88. 



394 



SHUNEM. 



claim to the " fountain of Jezreel/' (1 Sam. xxix. 1). 
On one of the heights of Jebel Jelbun, the village of 
Wezar was conspicuous. We enjoyed not a little the 
hour sj3ent upon the walls of this old castle. We ob- 
tained from it a remarkably distinct idea of the relative 
position of the different places in and around the great 
plain, as well as of the plain itself, stretching, as it may 
be said to do, from Jenin to Nazareth, from Carmel to 
the Jordan. 

Shortly after noon we left Zerin and proceeded north- 
wards to Solam, the ancient Shunem, where the Philis- 
tines pitched before their great victory over Saul 
(1 Sam. xxviii. 4), whence Abishag came to David in his 
old age (1 Kings i. 3) ; where dwelt the " great woman" 
that entertained Elisha (2 Kings iv. 8). It is not above 
half an hour from Zerin, on a slight elevation, up which 
we went, going through most of the village, which 
is dirty and unpleasant, though its inhabitants looked 
civil enough. It is surrounded by dense hedges of 
prickly pear, and our way out lay through a complete 
avenue formed of that shrub. There seemed some 
small gardens to the north, with vegetables and fruit- 
trees. Elisha's chamber is no longer here ; his "bed/' 
his " table/' his " stool/' his " candlestick/' have dis- 
appeared, though, possibly, ecclesiastical tradition might 
be able to supplement the deficiencies of Jew and 
Moslem, and tell in what cave or well all these are 
hidden. 

Passing northwards, we crossed the shoulder of Ed- 



NAIN. 



395 



Duhi, on our way to Nain or Nein, which still retains the 
old name. From this elevation, the view of the plain of 
Esdraelon is exceedingly fine ; and here Jebel et-TUr, 
or Tabor, comes into view, a high oval hill, like an egg 
laid upon its side, quite unlike the usual pictures of it 
Turning the western flank of the hill, we soon came to 
Nein, which, like the other villages here, stands on a 
small eminence, part of Ed-Duhi, or little Hermon. 
We went leisurely through the village, and found its 
mud-huts poor enough. There is a Moslem mosque and 
well in it, where we saw several at their prayers.* With 
all the drawbacks of poverty and meanness, the spot 
was as full of interest in itself, as in its situation it is 
pleasant. With Tabor looking down on it, and the hills 
of Nazareth overshadowing it, and the vast plain stretch- 
ing out before it, there was much of natural beauty 
about it to win the eye, while the memory of the Lord 
himself, brought before us so vividly, doubled all its at- 
tractiveness. We had to day been on the track of Saul, 
and Elijah, and Elisha, but now we are on the footsteps 
of the Lord himself! He was here as the widow's 
friend, and the succourer of her great need, as full of 
compassion as of power. He stands here as " the resur- 
rection and the life/' a vanquisher of that which is the 
cause of earth's many tears. " death, I will be thy 
plague ; grave, I will be thy destruction." He took 

* When the old French ecclesiastic visited the place, he found about a 
hundred families of Mahommedans, " aussi sauvages que des tygres." — 
La Terre Saincte, par Eugene Roger. 1646. P. 72. 



396 



PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. 



Lazarus out of the tomb ; here he meets the body on its 
way to the tomb. "Lazarus, come forth/' is his one 
command Young man, I say unto thee, arise/' is the 
other. " Loose him and let him ago/' does not come 
up to the exceeding tenderness of " delivering him to 
his mother !" What a gift to a widow ! Nor does it 
lessen the greatness of the gift to know, that the right 
to bestow it was to be purchased by the surrender of his 
own life as the ransom. 

About half-past one we leave Nam, on our way to 
Nazareth, crossing the rest of the plain. The day was 
still bright, and the sky all but cloudless. The anemo- 
nies here are of all colours, of a very large size, and 
cover immense fields. But the chief plant seems to be 
the thistle, which we meet with in all directions. As 
this is but spring, the new crop is barely above ground, 
and only here and there we meet with the dried re- 
lics of last year's vegetation. But we are told that 
the size of these thistles is immense, so that it is impos- 
sible to force your way through them, even on horse- 
back, when in full growth. They are of the species 
which we see often at home, the variegated thistle,* 
being a dark green prickly leaf slightly streaked with 
white. Every where we meet with indications of the 
enormous fertility of the land. Its plains are said to 
be capable of yielding five or six crops annually, and 
these of the richest kind, without manure and without 

* M Les herbt- s y croissent tellemeat hautes qu* a peine peut-on de- 
couvrir un homme a cheval."— Roger, La Terre Saincte, &c, p. 73. 



ROAD UP TO NAZARETH. 



397 



scourging the soil. Whether this be actually the case 
or not, no one can look on such a plain as this (or that 
of Sanur, if drained), without acknowledging that Pales- 
tine is not called fruitful in Scripture, merely because 
of its contrast with the desert, but because it really is 
surpassingly rich in soil. But there is no hand to till 
it ; nor is there skill or money, even though the hands 
were here. What Arab farmer would or could do justice 
to Esdraelon ? All that you can expect from such a one, 
is to sow a little seed and let the soil do justice to itself. 

We soon reached the foot of the steep hill in the 
bosom of which Nazareth is hidden, 800 feet above us. 
We found there were two roads from the plain, though 
they unite some hundred feet up. The one goes up the 
deep ravine, and is half a mile westward of the point 
where we touched the hill. The other is steeper and more 
precipitous, going up from the spot to which we had 
come, and then winding round the rocky shoulder of the 
hill, till it strikes into the ravine and joins the former. 
We chose the latter, and commenced the ascent. At 
first it was not difficult, and the grassy ledges, fringed 
with shrubs and trees, formed a good enough road. 
But we soon came to rocks, up which we ourselves 
might climb, but which our Syrian ponies would not 
face. Back we went a few yards, and tried another a 
little way higher up ; till, after several failures and slip- 
pings, both of man and beast, we reached a sort of ledge 
where a road was visible. It was rough and difficult, 
but we pushed on. till in the course of ten minutes we 



398 



THE RAVINE-ASCENT TO NAZARETH. 



found ourselves in the ravine, and upon the main road, 
if one can call it by such a name ; a road which was 
little better than a succession of rocky slopes and ledges, 
rugged with holes and stones. Yet this was the old 
road to Nazareth ! There could be no other from this 
side, so that one travelling from the south must neces- 
sarily have taken it. 

Up this toilsome steep, through this rugged defile, 
the Son of God had often passed. That old road up 
to Nazareth ! What thoughts it awoke ! Up that old 
road Joseph and Mary had carried the infant child. Up 
and down that old road had Jesus gone, times without 
number. 

Slowly we toiled up the ravine, which is in some 
places very narrow, in others wider and more open. 
We passed a well or tank which must be meant for 
the supply of some village at hand. We came to a 
place where two roads met, and after some hesitation 
(for we were alone, our men having gone on before) we 
took the right hand one. I suppose that on the left 
hand would have led us to the village of Ydfa, supposed 
to be the Japhea of Scripture,* and the Japka of 
Josephus.f In five or ten minutes more, at a sudden 
bend of the hill, El-Nazirah (Nazareth) came into view, 
in a beautiful hollow, like a mountain-nest, or rather on 
the western slope of the hollow. We had first to 
descend in order to enter the town ; then we ascended 
to get through it and reach our tents, which were pitched 

* Josh. xix. 12. f J. W. ii. 20, 6 ; iii. 7, 81. 



NAZARETH. 



899 



upon its north-western side. The town has its mud- 
hovels, but it has also its stone-houses, which, with 
mosque, minaret, and convent, to set them off, present a 
most attractive appearance. At four o'clock we reached 
our tents, and were made to listen to a tale of peril from 
our dragoman, who affirmed that a troop of spear-armed 
Bedawin had swept by him in the middle of the plain, 
looking terror and plunder. No attack, however, was 
made and no injury done ; so, whether it were a real 
adventure, or an Arab boast, we were left to guess. 

I went out immediately to survey the neighbourhood, 
for the interior of the town had few attractions. I be- 
took myself to a broken piece of elevated ground that 
rose to the north. There I sat down under a fig-tree to 
gaze upon the town beneath and the rugged mountain- 
basin around. The upper ridges of the hills were, as is 
usual in this worn-out land, grey and bare, but the lower 
slopes, and dells, and hollows were greener, sprinkled, 
not scantily, with the olive, the fig, the prickly pear, and 
the karub, while in the gardens clusters of the usual 
oriental fruit-trees shewed themselves. I was alone ; 
with no passer-by to disturb, and with nothing to dis- 
tract the eye from the one object lying before me, the 
early home of Jesus. Out of one of the trees beside me 
some turtle-doves flew, adding to the interest of the scene, 
and calling the thought more vividly to the scripture-me- 
mories that gather round this city. The Son of God 
had been here ; not once or twice ; but times without 
number. Here he had spent childhood, boyhood, man- 
hood, wandering over these hills, or sitting under some 



400 



THE HOME OF THE REJECTED. 



such fig-tree as that which now shades me from the 
sun. Here he had endured the contradiction of sinners 
against himself, and entered into the experience of many 
a sorrowful Psalm. 

For thy sake I have borne reproach, 

Shame hath covered my face. 

I am become a stranger unto my brethren, 

And an alien unto my mother's children, 

I wept my soul away in fasting ; 

That was to my reproach. (Psa. lxix. 7-20.) 

It was here that he was " rejected of men " and if 
there is one place more than another, that bears witness 
to mails hatred of God and of his holy Son, it is Naza- 
reth. Its inhabitants had known him well, and their 
assault on him was no outbreak of anger against a 
stranger, but the speaking out of man's heart against 
God. He had just come from Jordan where he had 
been acknowledged of God as His beloved Son ; and 
man's first act is to refuse himself and his claims. The 
accepted of God is the rejected of man. 

I returned from, my walk between five and six, and 
found my way back to the tent through endless hedges 
of prickly pear. Later in the evening we went out to 
enjoy the moonlight. The town and valley were of 
course but dimly seen, but still the growing moon 
shewed us the scene in its own mild, dreamy way. 
Some lights were visible in the town ; and the minaret 
of the mosque was lighted up, with some " wonderful 
lamp/' in token, I suppose, of fast or festival. Moon- 
light over Nazareth ! It will not soon be forgotten. It 
was pleasanter by far than moonlight upon Sinai, 



CHAPTER XV. 



NAZARETH — TABOR — VIEW — DESCENT — TIBERIAS — LAKE — SAIL — AD- 
VENTURE. 

Nazareth, March 14. — Just about sunrise, I set out 
for a walk, and climbed the hill immediately above the 
town, looking back, as I went up, to get a view of the 
scene. In twenty minutes I reached the summit ; but 
to increase my elevation, I ascended to the top of the 
Moslem Weli (Weli Ismael), which is perched upon the 
summit. I looked first to the east, and saw the sun, 
rising over the hills of Galilee, throw Tabor (which 
seemed not far off in that direction) into relief against 
a somewhat misty sky. Under me was the town of 
Nazareth, with its girdling hills, — hills which the Lord 
must so often have climbed. To the south-east there 
was Ed-Duhi (little Hermon) and Jebel Jelbun (Gil- 
boa) lying parallel to each other. Beyond these, to the 
right, or south-west, the range of Carmel, and the plain 
of Esdraelon ; directly west, lay Carmel itself, with its 
bay and bold headland, apparently very near , and 
stretching away northward, the Mediterranean. Between 
was a beautifully undulating stretch of ground. To 

c c 



402 



VIEW FROM THE HILL. 



the north, were two long ranges of hills, while eastward of 
these towered the great Hermon, J ebel-es Sheikh, with 
its snows bright in the radiance of dawn. A little farther 
east, beyond the Sea of Galilee, rose the hills of Bashan. 
It was a memorable view, and as splendid as it was 
memorable. On all sides, I saw smoking villages, which 
no doubt represented old towns known in history. But I 
had no one to tell me their names. Descending from the 
Weli, I wandered over the hill-top, on which I found 
great quantities of daisies, red and white. I had been an 
hour and half upon the hill, and on reaching the foot saw 
a group of mourners at the burying-ground. They were 
sitting wailing over the dead, but several of them were 
interrupting the wail with talk and laughter. I visited 
the well of the village, in the hollow, not far from our 
tents, called, I believe, the Well of the Virgin. Whether 
this is an ancient name or not, it does not matter ; the 
well is no doubt ancient, and has supplied the village 
in ages past. It may be the same well from which 
Mary drew, and out of which Jesus drank. In the 
neighbourhood was a " garden of herbs " and orchard, 
which seemed welWatered. 

We breakfasted at eight ; and afterwards I walked 
out, before starting, for another brief survey ; but I 
observed nothing new, save a curious circle of mourners, 
I suppose round the grave of one just buried, for it dif- 
fered from the usual routine of wailing. There was a 
large circle formed, chiefly of "women, — there might be 
fifty. In the centre of this there were two women 



DEPARTURE FROM NAZARETH. 



403 



dancing and chanting plaintively, with a long scarf in 
their right hands. They sung and danced, and threw 
aloft their arms, and waved the scarf up and down, and 
across ; the crowd listening in silence. As I approached, 
the circle opened to admit me ; so I stood for a little, 
and then left. In the course of ten minutes more, the 
whole band quitted the spot, marching, two and two, 
in procession past our tents into the town. They were 
all wearing their ordinary dresses. 

At nine, we left Nazareth, ascending the hill to the 
north, and obtaining from it a last view of the town.* 
We then descended into a valley, — a very lovely glen, 
sprinkled over with the anemone, the cyclamen, the 
hyacinth, and the small yellow cassia. Here we 
started a gazelle, which bounded off to its native hills. 
We saw a village to the left, which Mr Huber, an agent 
of the Church Missionary Society, who accompanied us, 
called Sumah, but which a fellah whom we met called 

* We did not visit the " Mount of Precipitation " as it is called, where 
ecclesiastical legend pretends to shew the place to which the Nazarenes 
led our Lord to cast him down from " the brow of the hill whereon their 
city was built." It is at least a mile and half from the village, and very 
unlikely to have been the real spot. There were precipitous places be- 
hind the city, to which we were more inclined to affix our tradition of the 
scene, in opposition to that of the monks. Old travellers call the hill 
" Saltus Domini." "About four arrow-shot without the sayd citye of 
Nazareth, towardes the south, is the place called Saltus Domini, in a 
mountayne, unto the top whereof the Jewes led our Savyoure Criste to 
have caste hym there downe ; but they had no power to do so. And 
soone after he was founden at the fote of another mountayne thereby e, 
where yet the prynte of his holy stappes are sene." — Pilgrimage of Syria, 
by Sir R. Guylforde, p. 51. 



404 



WILD GLEX. 



El-Mahal. We then came to a very wild glen, covered 
with prickly oaks, of the largest size that we had seen, 
except Abraham's tree. Many of them were cut or 
broken over, and presented a haggard appearance. On 
their broken stumps and projecting branches, eagles of 
several different kinds were sitting in great numbers. 
One of our party tried a shot at one of them ; but his 
pistol burst, and we who stood at his side, were in 
greater danger than the bird of the forest, who, upon 
the report, slowly rose on wing, and betook himself to 
a more distant perch. As we moved along, we saw 
more of them ; some nestling on their native oak, others 
hovering over us like hawks, others performing circles 
in all directions, not much alarmed at our presence, yet 
not willing to trust themselves too near. We seemed 
to be quite in a haunt of eagles. The presence of these 
fierce-eyed birds, the shaggy form of the vast rocks, the 
remains, here and there, of Bedawin fires, gave to this 
valley a savage and dreary aspect, which strikingly con- 
trasted with the pleasant, cheerful hollow above, where 
Kazareth basks in the sunshine. Besides the shivered 
oaks, there were other forest-trees of different kinds, 
which, however, looked like shrubs or brushwood 
beside them. In some places, the glen was quite a 
jungle ; nor should we have liked to traverse it at mid- 
night. The wolf and the hyena, doubtless, as well as 
the eagle and the Bedawi, have their lair in its recesses. 
Some camels w r ere feeding in one place, and a solitary 
herdsman was singing his morning song. 



ASCENT OF TABOR. 



405 



In five or ten minutes more, we came to a rough 
ascent. It was still a glen or ravine ; but we were now 
moving upwards. Its sides were covered with stones 
and out-cropping rocks, overspread with large trees 
just coming into foliage. We had still the companion- 
ship of eagles, in scores, flying about us. After this 
we descended into a valley similar to the last ; less 
savage, and more beautiful with trees and brushwood. 
This adjoins Tabor, the ascent of which we now com- 
menced. 

We did not go down into the plain, nor through the 
village of Deburieh, which lies at the southern base of 
the hill. We saw it, not far off ; but we kept more to 
the north, and soon found ourselves upon a narrow, 
rugged path, which, over rocks and loose soil, through 
mazes of jungle, and under boughs of spreading oak, in 
endless zigzags, winds up the noble hill. For a con- 
siderable way up, we continued riding ; but, towards 
the middle, the steepness increased, and we dismounted, 
some of us leaving our horses to follow at will ; others 
driving them up before us. The animals are quite 
accustomed to this, and made no effort to run off. Nor 
did they seem to reckon the ascent a very heavy pull ; 
for they went quite at their ease up all the narrow 
sinuosities of the path. One of them only, in attempt- 
ing a short cut, fell and rolled over. In vain he struggled 
to recover himself. Down he went, rolling and strug- 
gling till caught by some trees. We thought of knees 
cut or bones broken ; but he rose up in a moment, 



406 



VIEW FROM TABCTR. 



shook himself, and recommenced his upward path, 
without a scar on any part. In about fifty minutes, 
from the foot, we reached less rugged ground ; and it 
seemed as if the bulging sides of the mountain were 
subsiding into a level platform or ledge, going round 
part of the mountain-top, like a broad collar. This 
shelf was quite covered with grass, as well as trees ; and 
at one part there seemed to be a small spring, or rivu- 
let, for the grass was moist, and the soil spongy. In 
ten minutes more, we were on the broad summit ; but 
as this is a kind of hollow, or, at least, a level sur- 
rounded with grass-grown, tree-covered ruins, like a 
fortification, we saw nothing at first, till we ascended 
the north-eastern part of these ruins, and took our seat 
upon the wall of some old tower or battlement. 

The view from the top has so often been described, 
that I shall not linger over it. Yet it will bear reite- 
rated description. It is as truly splendid as can be 
conceived, and, spreading out under the clear brightness 
of a Syrian noon, it lost nothing of extent or grandeur. 
All Galilee lay around ; and this isolated mountain 
seemed its watch-tower. Safet, on its mountain-seat, 
with Lebanon rising behind it in the distance, and the 
snowy Hermon, the termination of Anti-Lebanus, on its 
right. This was the north. East and north-east were 
the "Mountain of Beatitudes/'* the hills of Bashan, 

* So called in Latin tradition, because said to be the place where the 
"Blessings," in the fifth chapter of Matthew; but the natives call it 
Kurun Hattin, the horns of Hattin, from its double summit. 



TABOR NOT THE TRANSFIGURATION MOUNT. 407 



and the Sea of Galilee, — the latter as blue and sunny 
as the sky above it. South and south-west were the 
plain of Esdraelon, with the villages of Endor and 
Nain. These were the chief objects on which the eye 
dwelt, though not all that the view comprised. We 
remained here for more than two hours, walking round 
the circumference in all directions, and marking not 
only the view in the distance, but the massive ruins 
which are still visible round the whole circle. These 
are probably of two kinds, Eoman and Christian ; for 
the Romans had here a fort, and the Christians, in 
after centuries, a church. Of the last, we saw a solitary 
representative in a monk, who had his dwelling appa- 
rently in some cell at the western corner, where he 
earns his livelihood by narrating legends, and pointing 
the remains of the three tabernacles which Peter wished 
to erect. 

There is no proof that Tabor was the hill of Trans- 
figuration. Ecclesiastical legend says so, but gives no 
reason ; and even Jerome, when mentioning it as the 
transfiguration, interposes a doubt, which shews that 
in his day the tradition had not yet rooted itself very 
firmly, probably being then of recent date. The fact 
mentioned by J osephus, that a Roman fort occupied the 
top of the hill, is a strong presumption against the ac- 
curacy of the tradition, though it is not wholly conclu- 
sive. .But the gospel narrative itself furnishes the most 
decided evidence, that the transfiguration could not have 
taken place so far south as this. Our Lord was at 



408 TRANSFIGURATION HILL NEAR BANE AS, 



Caesarea Philippi immediately before it took place, 
(Matt. xvi. 1 3 ; Mark viii. 27), (nearly three days' journey 
north of this), and the evangelists clearly indicate that 
the transfiguration-hill could not have been far off from 
that, for nothing seems to have intervened between his 
taking his disciples to that region and the scene upon 
"the holy mount/' After the transfiguration he comes 
south to Capernaum (Matt. xvii. 24 ; Mark ix. 33), as 
decidedly shewing that the place must have been some- 
where north of Capernaurn and near Baneas. So that 
there are far stronger probabilities in favour of the 
Great Hermon as the holy mount than Tabor ; and 
probably tradition might have preferred that hill had it 
been one which pilgrims could at all conveniently climb. 
At the same time I am doubtful as to whether Hermon 
could be the mountain, just because of its great height ; 
it being by much the highest mountain in the whole of 
Palestine, and the region round about. The evangelists 
call the Mount of Transfiguration " a high hill ; 3 but 
they call the Mount of Temptation " an exceeding high 
hill/'* from which we gather that the latter must have 
been higher than the former, which it could not be, if 
the former were Hermon. + 

* opog u-sJ/jjXav. Matt. xvii. 1. ooog b-^/qKov Xtccv. Matt. iv. 8. 

+ On what grounds, I know not, ecclesiastical tradition assigns Tabor 
as the mountain where Melchizedec dwelt, and from which he came forth 
to bless Abraham ; so that here is another king's dale rivalling that at Geri- 
zim, if legends are to be proofs. The tradition may be found at full length in 
the works of Athanasius, vol. ii. p. 7, Coloniae, 1686. Salem, the mother 
of Melchizedec, orders him to go to Tabor. He goes, remains in the wood 



TABOR A HILL Oh FAME. 



409 



But though it was not here that the Son of God was 
transfigured, yet Tabor is a noble mountain, with its crags, 
and oaks, and eagles, and, above all, with its far-stretch- 
ing view. Besides, it is the authentic spot where 
mighty deeds have been done in ancient days. Barak 
was here, with the ten thousands of Naphtali and the 
children of Zebulon ; and within sight of this Jabin's 
army was smitten before Israel. Since that it has been 
the witness of many a conflict and many a victory, each 
one of which might have made a mountain famous. It 
may be said to stand up here as the boundary of the 
region on the south, just as Hermon rises as the limit on 
the north, the one the watch-tower of Zebulon, and the 
other of Dan. Hence they are joined together in sing- 
ing creation's responsive song of gladness, " Tabor and 
Hermon shall rejoice in thy name," (Psa. lxxxix. ] 2). 

About half-past two we began to descend, taking the 
same road as in the ascent. Safet, on the distant hill, 
was in our eye as we went down, gleaming out beauti- 
fully in the sunshine. The eagles are still on the wing 
in all directions ; and one of them which had been poised 
motionless, far up in the sky, suddenly pounced upon 
its prey far down the hill, taking a swoop, as seemed 
to us, of not much less than a thousand feet in a mo- 
seven years, naked and exposed, till his back became like a snail's shell, 
wtfs/ dspfJsCi yO\<j)V7}£. I need not tell the whole story. For the honour 
of Athanasius, I should hope that the above " History," as it is called, is 
not a geuuine work. It indicates, however, an early ecclesiastical tradi- 
tion, which gives Tabor equal claims with Gerizim in being the Moriah of 
Abraham. 



410 



KHAN TIT JAR. 



ment. Having got down into the valley, we turned 
northwards into a richly wooded glen, smiling in fresh 
verdure, as if all summer were upon it. Winding- 
round the shoulder of a low height we passed out into 
more open country. We soon came to a Khan or 
ruined fort, with the relics of a tow T n or village near. 
Here a weekly market is held, which we were told 
draws crow 7 ds together from various villages, far and 
near, Nazareth and Tiberias contributing their buyers 
and sellers. Not one human face was to be seen here 
to-day, nor one human voice to be heard The name of 
the Khan is Tujar* We next reached the village of 
Lubieh on a small eminence. There w r as nothing re- 
markable about it, so we did not linger, but passed 
through at its northern extremity. From Lubieh we 

* An old Book of Travels (1600) calls this " Ain-el-Tyger." " All the 
way (from the Mount of Beatitudes) which we travelled this day was 
very pleasant, and all the ground, both hills and vales, very fruitful, ac- 
cording as it is described by Moses (Deut. viii. 7, 8). And we came that 
day about two of the clock to a village called, in the Arabic tongue, Ain- 
el-Tyger, that is, by interpretation, the merchant's eye, where there are 
two very fair castles for travellers to lodge in, from danger of wild Arabs, 
who abound in these parts. We took up our lodging at the nearest castle, 
which is the fairest." Travels of foure Englishmen, p. 89. Pliny Fisk 
gives a different name, " We arrived at Khamsook, a market town. Here 
are two old castles, and here the merchants of Nazareth, the people of the 
villages, and the Arabs from the mountains, hold a fair every Monday, 
When we arrived, we found about 1000 persons assembled," Memoirs, p. 
315. As this book abounds in misspelt names, I suppose that Khan Sook 
is meant ; sook being the Arab word for market, and Khan the usuai 
word denoting inn. As Tujar or Tajar means merchant, and sook market, 
either of the two names may be iu use, as denoting the same thing. 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 



411 



descended into the valley, which seemed fruitful and 
well-watered. From this we began our ascent of the 
long slope of the hill which overhangs Tiberias. The 
ascent is gradual, and the road good ; while the hills 
which we had quitted lay behind us, lovely in their fresh 
green, with endless hillocks, and undulations, and ver- 
dant steeps, in whose hollows the shadows were lying 
deep, while on their heights the declining sun was shin- 
ing softly. As w 7 e rode up the slope a party met us, 
" making inquisition for blood/' (Psa. ix. 12). A man 
had been murdered, and the relations were in quest of 
the man-slayer ; not to arrest him, and bring him to 
trial, but to kill him on the spot, A little boy, the son 
of the slain man, accompanied them, for in him lay the 
right of avenging his father's death. Here was the 
ancient Ooel, or avenger of blood, still perpetuated from 
Israel's days. We were reminded that "vengeance/' 
according to Scripture, is a sacred thing, and that the 
" avenger/' in seeking recompence for blood, was fulfill- 
ing a divine commission. That Christians should be 
enjoined to forego this, and leave the execution of this 
awful offence to God himself, is no proof of its being 
wrong in itself. The gospel does not cancel rights of 
citizenship and the like ; it merely asks us to forego 
them till the Lord come. 

At half-past five we reached the longed-for height, 
and in the twinkling of an eye the whole of the Sea of 
Galilee was before us, the town of Tiberias at our feet. 
The eastern side of the hill is as steep and precipitous 



412 



MOONLIGHT ON THE LAKE. 



as its western is gentle in ascent. The town looked 
well from this point, almost projected into the lake, and 
there were our tents not two hundred yards south of it, 
and within half a stone's cast of the water ! How fair 
this sunset upon such a sea. What a ceiling, and what 
a floor ! Less than half an hour brought us down the 
rugged road to our tents ; and as there still remained 
but little of day, I lost no time in plunging into the 
blue waves before us. 

We have passed out of Zebulon, in which Nazareth 
lies, into Naphtali, of which, perhaps, the southern 
border was near Tiberias. " Satisfied with favour and 
full with the blessing of the Lord " (Deut. xxxiii. 23), 
he sat down by the margin of this bright sea. Here, from 
the thick woods or steep rocks around, the " hind of 
Naphtali" came down to drink of waters, which even 
in such a drought as that in Ahab's days, would not 
fail, 

After evening worship, about nine o'clock, I went out 
in the moonlight, and walked a considerable way down 
the margin of the lake. What a scene ! The gloomy 
cliffs above, and the soft but solemn sea at my side ! 
The dim outline of the mountains on the western side, 
with the Bedawin fires twinkling at their feet. Away 
to the north-east, the snows of Hermon, some forty 
miles off, gleaming in the moonshine ! All round, per- 
fect peace, broken only by the small ripple of the sea, 
as some breeze went by, or the casual tinkle of the bell 
attached to some of the horses which were grazing not 



SUNRISE ON THE LAKE. 



413 



far off. What moonlight like this had I ever had 
before ? The Son of God had been here, and that lake 
was the silent witness of his wondrous grace. It was 
not Olivet alone, that had been his moonlight resort for 
prayer. Here, no doubt, he had often been, and just at 
such an hour as this ! 

Sea of Galilee, Saturday, March 15. — I rose before 
the sun, resolved to see him come up over these old hills. 
The lake had taken on its first gleam, but that was 
all. It lay before me in profoundest stillness, as if 
preparing for sunrise, though the snows of Hermon 
had not yet caught the dayspring. I waited, and the 
sky soon threw off its paleness, and the lake its shadows. 
Suddenly a pencil, or rather a sheaf of rays, shot up be- 
hind the eastern hills, " the country of the Gadarenes 
then rapidly the bold sun came up and shed his new 
brilliance over the lake, tracing out for himself a 
path of gold across its breadth. The whole circle of 
hills and slopes was lighted up as with the flush of 
noon. I walked on to the hot baths, which are con- 
tained in a large but shabby building, little more than 
a mile to the south of the town. I bathed, and found 
the water very hot. I had not my thermometer w r ith 
me, but I should suppose that the heat could not be 
less than 98°. The hot-spring that supplies these baths, 
comes from the base of the mountain. I then continued 
my walk for a considerable time, and shortly betook 
myself to the lake for a cold bath, which I fou*>~ ex- 



414 



SAIL ON THE LAKE. 



ceedingly refreshing. The cold bath was free, but 
for the hot, I paid half a piastre, or little more than a 
penny. 

After breakfast we prepared for a sail upon the lake. 
There is one boat on it, and this, we and our American 
friends, had engaged last night, A little after ten we 
saw it pulling up to our tents, with two fishermen in it, 
who might have been John and James, or Andrew and 
Peter, coming ashore with their morning draught, or to 
mend their nets. For easier embarkation, we went to 
the old tower which overhangs the water at a consider- 
able angle, where the broken masses of stone, heaved into 
the lake by the earthquake of 1838, form a sort of pier, or 
at least a series of stepping-stones. We pushed off 
without delay, keeping to the north-east for a consider- 
able way to get a view of the opposite shore. As we 
sailed off, the town of Tiberias itself first caught our 
eye. In spite of its cliffs, and lake, and palms, it looks 
poor and shattered, and not all the lively sunshine which 
now rested on it, could mitigate its forlorn aspect.* 
The northern shore was quite distinct, and the vast 
ruins of Tell Hum struck our eye. It must have been 
no ordinary city that has left such ruins. Part of them 
are on the slope that goes up from the lake, and so 
more visible. They look like numerous heaps of stones 

* There are four or five palm-trees in or about the town. They are not 
very remarkable, but still an ornament. The disappearance of the trees 
round the lake is not surprising ; but the absence of ruins is most unac- 
countable, considering the numerous cities which girdled it. What has 
become of the stones ] 



EASTERN SIDE. 



415 



or debris from this distance, but still they indicate the 
site of a great town. North-eastward of them, far in 
the distance, the great Hermon rose, with all noon 
upon its snowy summit, but with shadows below, dark 
wreaths of cloud coiling across its majestic steeps.* 
To the north-west, Safet looked down upon us from its 
mountain-seat. It seemed to lie on one of the high 
slopes of the hill, from which part of it stretched up 
to a higher, running up amid a forest of olives to the 
castle on the summit. 

Keeping still an eastward course for some miles, we 
got an excellent view of the country. It is bare and 
uncultivated. The sides of the hills are steep and 
rugged, but the line of the ridge at its summit is re- 
markably even and continuous, like the top of a wall, 
without a slack or break for a long way. The boatmen 
told us that this coast is called " the Wilderness of the 
North f-f but I could not catch the Arabic words. This 

* No one who has looked upon the placid majesty of that noblest of 
Syrian mountains, the Lebanon of Lebanon, will be at any loss to under- 
stand the figure 

"His countenance is as Lebanon," (Song of Sol. v. 15). 
Look at it far off or near, in moonlight or sunshine, at daybreak, or sun- 
set, or noon, from the southern hills of Ephraim, or the nearer plains of 
Issachar, or the yet nearer heights of Naphtali ; look at it from Esdraelon 
or from Tabor, from some distant watch-tower of the west, or from the 
slope of Banias on which it seems to rest its base, it is still the same noble 
mountain, visible everywhere, and everywhere strangely attractive, keep- 
ing watch over the land, and making you feel not so much as if you were 
looking upon it, but as if it were looking upon you. 

t The whole region is said to retain its ancient name of Gaulonitis, 
in the modern Jaul an. 



416 



SCENES W THE LOED's HISTORY. 



must be the wilderness mentioned by the evangelist, 
(Luke ix. 10), "the desert place belonging to the city- 
called Bethsaida/' into which the Lord took the apostles 
apart from the multitude. It may be the same as that 
mentioned again, " he withdrew himself into the wil- 
derness and prayed/' (Luke v. 1 6). If so, then one of 
these mountains before us must be the mountain into 
which he withdrew himself to pray, (Matt. xiv. 23 ; 
Mark vi. 46). It is bare and wild ; but not barer nor 
wilder than must any place in this unholy earth have 
appeared to One who had just left his Father's holy 
heaven. It is certainly not the " mountain of myrrh/' 
nor the " hill of frankincense " (Cant. iv. 6), but it lies 
on the way to these. For " through death to life" is 
the law of the kingdom. The desert was Israel's way to 
Canaan. 

Somewhere in the neighbourhood of these hills must 
have been the spot where Christ fed the multitude (Matt, 
xiv. 15 ; Mark vi. 36; Luke ix. 12). For that place 
was evidently not far from the mountain to which he 
afterwards retired. It was evening when he fed them, 
and there was no time for him to go to any distance. 
Immediately on feeding them he sends the multitude 
away, puts his disciples into a boat, to cross the lake 
and so shorten their passage to the other side (to which 
he was coming in the morning), then goes alone to pray, 
till near the fourth watch of the night (that is, after 
three o'clock). This helps to fix the spot so far. But 
there is a reference in John's narrative, which, besides 



EASTERN SIDE. 



417 



that of Luke (ix. 10), brings the place to the vicinity of 
Bethsaida. When J esus saw the multitude coming, he 
spoke to Philip about procuring food from the adjoin- 
ing villages ; * now Philip was of Bethsaida 33 (John 
i. 44), and therefore could at once answer his question. 
The question would not have been put to Philip, nor 
could Philip have answered, had not Bethsaida, his native 
town, been nigh at hand. 

We now sailed southwards, still keeping to the east 
coast.* Nearly opposite Tiberias, but a little to the 
north, we saw a deep valley running eastward through 
the mountains. This our men called Wady esh- 
Shemak,\ the valley of the fishes, for what reason we 

* I was afterwards informed by Mr Thomson of Sidon, who had recently 
traversed this region, and whose knowledge both of the country and its 
language gave him great facilities in picking up information, that nearly 
opposite Mejdel (Magdala), or just about opposite where we turned south, 
there is a place called by the natives Girza which Mr T. supposes to be a 
corruption of Gergesene. Here there is a sharp sloping precipice of per- 
haps 2000 feet high. This is the "steep place" (jcptj/xvoD) Matt. viii. 
32 ; Mark v. 13 ; Luke viii. 33. Mark and Luke say it was in the country 
of the Gadarenes, and we know that Gadara (eight miles from Tiberias 
according to Josephus, Life, 65) must have been farther south. But the 
term Gadarene may be a wide one, and besides, the reading in Mark and 
Luke is a very doubtful one ; the mass of evidence preponderates in favour 
of Gerasene instead of Gadarene. 

f This is, I suppose, the Wady Sammeh mentioned by Seetzen. Here 
he found "a tolerably deep river, which in summer is completely dry." — 
Brief Account of the Countries adjoining the Lake of Tiberias, &c. p. 19. 
He travelled in 1805 and 1806. To the north of this, and not far from 
the place where Jordan joins the lake, Seetzen mentions a village called 
Tallanihie, which he conjectures to be the ancient Julias, where he found 
' a rich plain and many olive-trees, p. 19. 

Dd 



418 



SOUTHERN COAST. 



could not learn. Near this, but a little farther down, 
we saw Wady ¥%k, with the small village of that 
name. This is probably the Apheh near which Ben- 
hadad was smitten by Ahab (1 Kings xx. 26-30). It is 
not to be confounded with Aphek in Lebanon (Josh. xiii. 
4), nor with the Aphek of Esdraelon (1 Sam. xxix. 1). 
A little farther down, are the ruins of an old castle, 
supposed to be that of Gamala, of which Josephus fre- 
quently speaks as oj>posite Tarichea.* Its present name 
is Kalat el Hosn, or the Castle of Hosn. It is said to 
have taken its name from the resemblance of the hill to 
a camel's back ; but of this we observed nothing, t 
Very near the bottom of the lake lies the village of 
Sumrah, mentioned by Burckhardt, and supposed to be 
the Hippos of Josephus. As we neared the southern 
extremity of the lake, the most conspicuous object was 
the village of es-Semakh quite at the southern angle of 
the lake, and about three miles from Sumrah. From 
the distance at which we now saw it, there was not the 
shabby appearance which its mud-houses are said to 
give it. It is a Moslem village, but said to contain a 
few Greek Christians. We now turned our prow west- 
ward, and made for the shore at the ruins of Kerak, the 

* See Dr Kitto's Land of Promise, p. 281. Josephus tells us that " Gamala 
was a city over against Tarichea, on the other side of the lake" (J. W. 
iv. 1. 1). 

f Mr Thomson of Sidon had visited it, and mentioned the hill as being 
1100 feet high. The Castle measured 760 paces from S. E. to N. W., and 
was about half that in breadth. 



TARICHEA OR KERAK. 



419 



Tarichea of Joseplius. * Our first employment was to 
bathe ; by which we were greatly refreshed. Afterwards 
we wandered about among the ruins. They are mere 
ruins, though extensive, not presenting anything which 
can be called a relic of this once important place. The 
ruins occupy an eminence of no great height, but 
yet sufficient to overlook the water. It cannot be called 
a commanding situation, yet it is one which would 
render a town formidable, if not impregnable, in ancient 
times. The different mounds of debris mark the extent 
of the town ; and their height above the lake shews 
how easily Josephus could make the ditch or trench, 
leading from the house of the nobles, to the lake,t by 
means of which he and others secretly left the town and 
sailed over to Hippos^, which was nearly opposite. In 
walking over these mounds, it is not easy to realize the 
extent of the city, nor to see how 30,000 could have 
taken refuge within its walls. § The place is now de- 
serted, and we saw no one nigh. But the busy crowds 
of fishermen had been here, and. by them it would seem 

* Sectzen gives the native name as El-Malaha or Ard-el-Malaha (salt 
region), " which is synonymous with the Greek name of Taricheae, ,, 
(Brief Account, p. 21). He mentions a considerable space round as with- 
out vegetation, which in summer is covered with salt, p. 22. 

f 1 See his life, Sect 31. d/otPvyci ftoiqtfccg, is his expression. 

+ em TTjV (JjzQopiov tojv Ittrivtov , the frontiers of the Hippenians, 
shewing that Hippos did not lie quite on the margin of the lake. 

§ Writing of Cassius' occupation of Syria, Josephus says, " as he returned 
to Tyre, he went up to Judea also, and fell upon Tarichea, and took it, 
carrying captive 30,000 Jews." Antiq. xiv. 7, 3. 



420 



ROMAN BUTCHERY. 



that the city was originally founded.* Here, the Roman 
armies had been, swarming up these low heights to over- 
whelm the city. Here, in the midst of the city, Ves- 
pasian set up a judgment-seat, from which issued the 
orders for a massacre, the most unprovoked and savage 
that ever dishonoured the Roman name. Twelve hun- 
dred grey-haired Jews were butchered in " the stadium 
six thousand of the strongest youths of Tarichea were 
bound and sent off to Nero to be employed in digging 
through the Isthmus ; the remainder, amounting to 
thirty thousand four hundred, were sold for slaves ! 
Poor Taricheans ! With what exterminating fury the 
sword of Rome swept through your streets ! How fear- 
fully did the fourth great beast of Daniel, with its iron 
teeth, devour, and with its nails of brass, tread down 
the God-forsaken land (Dan. vii. 7-19). The blood is 
dried up, the groans of the slain and the captive have 
ceased, the lake is calm, the Roman has departed, the 
Jew has no dwelling here ; but these mounds of ruin 
remain as the monuments of one of the most flourishing 
cities which Galilee contained, in an age when it swarmed 
with a busy population. 

In a little we embarked again, and proceeded up- 
wards very pleasantly for a little, with sail and oar. 
We w T ere quite within sight of our tents, and in tw T enty 
minutes more we expected to be ashore, in good time to 
visit the Jewish synagogue ere their Sabbath was over. 

* Supposing that the name comes from the Greek ^a^%0r» Tarichea 
must have been the fish-curers' village. Suidas, Lex. vol. iii. p. 431. 



A BREEZE UFON THE LAKE. 



421 



Suddenly a rough ripple came along the sea, the wind 
rose, and getting round nearly to the north, staid our 
progress. We tried to beat up, but in vain. We thought to 
make for the shore by " toiling and rowing, for the wind 
was contrary and some of our party, not relishing 
the laziness of the boatmen, laid hold of the oar, and 
plied it vigorously. It snapped ; and the flat of the 
oar floated away irrecoverably. With one oar, how 
could we pull against such a wind, and such a sea as 
was now rising and sending its spray over us ? We 
had still our sail, clumsy as it was, so we hoped to 
make way, and land, though it might be far down. 
But a squall swept by, and our poor cotton sail (for it 
was not canvas) went in pieces. Still our mast stood, 
which we rather wondered at ; so we left the cotton 
rags to flutter in the breeze, and perhaps to help us on 
a little faster, for all that remained for us now was to 
drift before the wind to the foot of the lake. Our boat 
was crazy enough, but I don't think there was much 
danger ; and even though our craft had foundered, or had 
leaked more than it really did, the " swim " did not 
seem a very formidable one, — considerably less than the 
night achievement of the youth of Abydos. There was, 
however, one real bit of peril connected with this going 
before the wind ; we might be driven ashore on the 
western coast, and a visit to Aphelc, or Qamala, or 
Hippos, would hardly compensate for being plundered 
by the bands of marauding Bedawin, who infest that re- 
gion, and whose fires we had seen last night twinkling 



422 



LANDING AT SEMAKH. 



at the base of the hills. Our efforts were now directed 
to avert this evil. We must be drifted to some part of 
the lake ; but by means of our helm and one remaining 
oar, we might continue to avoid the west, and to hit the 
shore somewhere about the village of Semakh. On we 
went, at the mercy of the breeze, which was gradually, 
in spite of our exertions, working us nearer and nearer 
to the opposite coast. At last, however, we found our- 
selves nearing the shore, and, by " the good hand of our 
God upon us/' we landed safely a little to the west- 
ward of the village. He who once said here, H Peace, 
be still," and " there was a great calm," did not inter- 
pose to calm the waves ; but he so ordered everything 
as that no evil befel us. 

Landing close by Semakh, we get a passing view of 
the village. But as it is on a slight elevation, and as 
we had no time to spare, we merely saw it from the 
shore. A few of its inhabitants gathered round us, 
wondering, but civil. We had now to consider what we 
were to do. For not only had we a long walk before 
us, but we had Jordan to cross ; and it was now nearly 
five o'clock. Unexpectedly, we had been transported 
westward of the river ; but this enabled us to set foot on 
the territories of Gad, and of the half-tribe of Manasseh, 
which otherwise we should not have visited. We could 
not tell the depth of the Jordan at its exit from the 
lake. All we knew, was that some of our -party, this 
afternoon, had swum across it, when we were resting at 
Kerak. Among the villagers who came now to visit 



FORDING THE JORDAN. 



423 



us, was a mounted Arab. The thought immediately 
occurred, let us get this man to shew us the ford, and 
to carry us over. He at once agreed, and we set off for 
the ford, which was about three quarters of a mile from 
Semakh, and is just below the place where the lake be- 
comes the J ordan. We soon reached the spot, and the 
Arab halted his steed to take us up behind. I soon 
mounted, and the Arab putting spurs to his charger, 
plunged in. A few yards brought us into deep water. 
The river was over our saddle-bow. He had missed the 
ford ! The horse was just about to swim. This was 
hardly safe, with two upon his back and in such a cur- 
rent. Turning sharply round, the Arab regained the 
shore, and after looking about him a little, he plunged 
in again, a yard or two farther down. We were soon in 
deep water again, and over the saddle. But we had 
reached the middle of the stream, and had passed the 
worst. So we pushed on and were speedily on the 
other side, soaking, of course, but quite safe. The 
horseman returned for the party, who, warned by my 
wetting, disencumbered themselves of as many gar- 
ments as possible before starting, and each one in turn 
was thus ferried safely over. While I was watching the 
process from the shore, I saw one of our American 
friends boldly strip, and carrying clothes and gun aloft 
above his head, enter the stream a little above where 
we were. He was successful ; though the force of the 
current, and still more the large stones over which 
Jordan rolls, and which form the bed of the south- 



424 



MOONLIGHT WALK UP THE LAKE. 



western margin of the lake, threatened more than once 
to upset him. 

It was now about six o'clock, and we had a walk of 
four miles before us, over a rough and narrow path.* 
There was still twilight, however, and the moon was 
rising. A walk in our chill state was the best thing for 
us. We set off at once ; taking, however, the precaution 
of sending on our Arab horseman both to proclaim our 
safety to our friends, (for three had staid behind), and 
to send our horses to meet us. Tearing a leaf out of 
my note-book, I wrote a sentence in pencil, and gave it 
to him, that there might be no mistake. Our American 
friends did the same, and our messenger, taking both 
notes, put them, not into his pocket, for an Arab does 
not know that convenience, but into his bosom, and set 
off. We followed, and had no difficulty in findiug our 
way, as the lake on the one side, and the hills on the 
other, prevent any one from straying. Though we were 
tired and hungry, yet the scene was so beautiful, that 
we soon forgot all our discomforts, and thought our- 
selves rather fortunate in meeting with such an adven- 
ture, and closing the day with a moonlight walk, by the 
margin of such a lake. 

About half a mile from our tents, we were met by our 
horses. Our messenger, being an Arab, could not be in 

* Josephus tells us that Tarichaea was thirty stadia from Tiberias (Life, 
sect. 32), or upwards of three miles ; and we were about a quarter of a 
mile from Tarichaea. We found his statement very accurate ; a little 
under the mark, as it seemed to us. But our peculiar circumstances, 
perhaps, made the way seem longer than it really is. 



A GREAT CALM. 



42.5 



a hurry. He had taken rather a leisurely ride from the 
time he left us, and so had not arrived in time to be of 
much service, either in relieving the anxieties of our 
friends, or in sending on our horses. But it did not 
matter. About half-past seven we were comfortably 
seated in our tents at our homely board (for it was lite- 
rally a board, not a table), enjoying the fellowship of 
our friends, and relating to them all the marvels of the 
day. They had been rather uneasy about us, seeing the 
storm, and knowing the perils of the eastern coast. 
With a psalm of thanksgiving we closed the day, and 
went to rest shortly after ten. Ere doing so, I looked 
out for a few minutes upon the lake. The wind had 
left it, and there was not a ripple on its face. How 
tranquil ! 

All things are calm, and fair, and passive. Earth 

Looks as if lulled upon an angel's lap, 

Into a breathless dewy sleep ; so still, 

That we can only say of things, they be ! 

The lakelet now, no longer vexed with gusts, 

Replaces on her breast the pictured moon 

Pearled round with stars. Sweet imaged scene of time, 

To come perchance, when this vain life o'erspent, 

Earth may some purer beings' presence bear ; 

Mayhap even God may walk among his saints 

In eminence and brightness like yon moon, 

Mildly outbeaming all the beads of light, 

Strung o'er night's proud, dark brow. 

And to-morrow is the day of rest ; the day which 

speaks of resurrection as well as rest. We are to cele- 



426 



A SABBATH IN GALILEE. 



brate resurrection amid scenes where the risen One has 
been 

O caritas ! O Veritas ! 
O lux perennis ! En erit, 
Post tot labores, ut tuo 
Tandem fruamur Sabbato ! 

It is something more than pleasant, to think of a Sab- 
bath by the Sea of Galilee. 

Sea of Galilee, Sabbath, March 16. — Went out about 
sunrise to sit by the margin of the lake, down towards 
the hot-baths. The sun came up over the eastern hills, 
and the day began. The Lake was bright gold, Her- 
mon pure silver ; all was still, not a trace of yesterday's 
breeze. Our boat had crept up the lake during the 
night, and was now nearly opposite the baths ; the men, 
having mended their oar, were rowing her up close by 
the shore. This was the only sign of life on sea or land, 
nor was there a sound save the slight dash of the oar. 
The morning was cool, but not chill ; and the sun, 
though cloudless, was not yet keen enough to make one 
long for shade. Sitting on one of the large stones 
which line the margin of this part of the lake, and 
reading the sacred story of the days when the Son of 
God was here, I passed the two freshest hours of morn- 
ing. The remembrance of them is peace. 

We breakfasted at half-past eight, and at half-past 
twelve we went out, some four or five hundred yards up 
the acclivity behind our tents, to have worship. Our 
congregation amounted to ten ; our four American fel- 



WORSHIP BY THE SIDE OF THE LAKE. 427 

low-travellers, five of ourselves, and Mr Huber, the 
lay agent of the Church Missionary Society, who had 
accompanied us from Nazareth. There ought to have 
been another, for one of the servants whom our drago- 
man had brought with him from Jerusalem, was a 
Christian J ew, J ohn David by name, a pleasant oblig- 
ing man. But he only knew a few words of English, so 
he did not join us. The place that we had selected was 
an old ruin, that seemed once to have been a castle. Its 
eastern wall, still standing, gave us shelter from the heat 
of noon. Having been chosen to conduct the service, I 
took my place at a projecting ledge that ran along the 
lower part of the wall. The congregation gathered 
round, some on the scanty grass, some on broken projec- 
tions of the wall, some on the stones that lay around. 
We sung our psalm, and kneeled down on the bare 
ground. I took for exposition the Lord's words, (Matt, 
xi. 28), spoken somewhere in this neighbourhood, 
" Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." The cities to whose inhabitants 
he spoke them lay before me, — Chorazin, Capernaum, 
Bethsaida, — mere ruins ! The words of grace seemed 
full of meaning, but even more so did the words of warn- 
ing, — the woes uttered against the unbelief of the mul- 
titudes. It was pleasant to proclaim the words of love 
in the hearing of these old hills, and of that lake which 
had heard them at first, " I will give you rest/' And 
it was strangely solemn to repeat the threat of woe, and 
pointing to the ruins of Capernaum, to say, " And thou 



428 



SABBATH EVENING. 



Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be cast 
down to hell/' The invitation seemed to come to us 
overflowing with new grace, and the warning loaded 
with a deeper, truer sadness than ever before. 

We dined at three, and spent some time after it in 
listening to some old hymns, and to some choice parts 
of the Pilgrim's Progress, Mr Beddome being the reader. 
The hymns lost nothing of their antique richness, nor 
the Pilgrim ought of his quaint keen truth, by being 
read by the Sea of Tiberias.* 

About six I went out, and sat upon the shore. The 
sun had not set, but had left the lake. The eastern 
hills were still radiant, and the evening as it came down 
upon the lake, brought with it a mellow softness, quite 
in harmony with the hour and the day. A slight breeze 
once and again woke up the ripple, and threw motion 
into the level stillness of the waters ; but, otherwise, all 
was profoundly peaceful. The shadows gradually deep- 
ened ; but the moon was up, and those stars which 
were too bright for her to hide, came out one by one in 
the blue above, strewing their sparkles over the un- 
broken and almost undimpled sea. 

* Mrs Hemans says somewhere, — 

The hymns the learn'd crusaders sang 
Have died in Galilee. 

The crusaders in general were not burdened with learning, and I know 
not the hymns which they sang, or whether they sang any in Galilee, 
though they did so in Jerusalem. But supposing that they did so, we 
were resolved not to let the old hymns die, nor to bo behind our crusad- 
ing forefathers in their melodies. 



THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE SON OF GOD. 429 

Perhaps we err in thinking that the Son of God 
sought these shores because of their silent peacefulness. 
They are tranquil now. The splash of oars is not heard 
on the waters, and the tread of man's steps sounds not 
over these round stones and tiny shells. But eighteen 
hundred years ago, it was wholly different. As Tyre 
and her daughter-cities covered the whole western sea- 
plain ; so did Capernaum and hers encircle the whole 
lake of Chinnereth. The population of this district in 
these days is almost incredible. The least of the Galilean 
villages numbered fifteen thousand dwellers. Our Lord's 
dwelling at Capernaum, and his frequent visits to the 
district, are explained by this fact. Nowhere in the 
land could he have such a field. When he wanted 
solitude he had, as in Jerusalem, so here, to choose the 
mountain and the midnight. The hills of Bethsaida 
w r ere to him in Galilee, what the Mount of Olives was 
in Judea. His silent life was at Nazareth, his busy 
life at Gennesaret, his death at Jerusalem. The sacrifice 
was not offered here, but not the less was this the w T ay to 
the altar. From this he goes up to Jerusalem to die ; 
and to this he returns when the death had paid the ran- 
som, and the blood " shed for many, for the remission of 
sins/' had opened for us the new and living way into 
the holiest, (Heb. x. 1 9). AVe look at this placid lake, 
and remember the life of the Son of God ; but we are 
recalled in a moment to his death. For why w r as it 
that he so suddenly disappeared from these coasts ? It 
was that he might die ; and w T hy did he return after this 



430 



MUSINGS BY THE LAKE. 



brief but mysterious interval, in which he had visited 
not merely Gethsemane and Golgotha, but THE grave ? 
It was that he might shew himself as the resurrection 
and the life. We cannot separate his life from his 
death, Galilee from Jerusalem, nor attempt to compare 
the one with each other, as if the former were more 
attractive, more precious, than the latter. The scenes 
of Galilee may speak to the heart ; but those of J erusa- 
lem to the conscience ; and the tender love which the 
former unfold to us would be nothing without the 
righteous pardon which the latter reveals. 

How long I sat here I know not. But such a scene 
one is loath to leave. The eye is not satisfied with see- 
ing ; nor does the memory tire in recalling the words 
spoken, and the deeds done, eighteen centuries ago on 
this shore. The people that sat in darkness then saw 
a great light ; but that light passed away, and there is 
thick darkness now. What a region this will be when 
that light returns ; and the voice speaks to Galilee as 
to Jerusalem, 

Arise, shine, for the light is come ! 

And the glory of Jehovah has risen upon thee. 

Sea of Galilee, Monday, March 17. — Rose at half 
past five, and went out to walk and to bathe. The sun 
came up while I was dressing, the sun of a Syrian daw r n, 
cloudless, with only a thin mist over the sky, which an 
hour's sunshine would evaporate. A native passed me, 
apparently looking for bait along the shore, giving me 
a civil salutation in Italian. Shortly after, having com- 



MORNING ENCOUNTERS. 



431 



pleted my dressing, I missed my soap which I had been 
using. Having looked about for it in vain, I thought 
that perhaps this Arab might have picked it up. I soon 
overtook him, and mustered a few Italian words to the 
effect that I had lost my soap, and that he must have 
picked it up when he passed me. He told me that he 
had not ; and he emptied the bag which he was carrying, 
to shew me its contents. Seeing me still incredulous, 
he grasped his beard, and protested by it, that he had 
not the missing article, offering to go back with me and 
seek for it. We went to the spot, and after some search, 
found it almost hidden between some stones. He smiled 
at the discovery, and, with a piastre to comfort him, went 
away cheerful, not by any means affronted at my sus- 
picion of his honesty. For a little I busied myself in 
gathering the small shells with which the shore abounds. 
They look more like salt-water inhabitants than fresh- 
water ; but there they are ; the solitary dwellers among 
these round stones. For no other shell, of any kind or 
size whatever, could we find here. They are not bigger 
than a pea. 

I then sat down upon a large stone, close by the 
water's edge, and read the thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
fifteenth chapters of Matthew. These parables be- 
longed to this region ; and may have been spoken on 
this very spot. To read Milton under Milton's mul- 
berry at Cambridge, or Homer on the plains of Troy, 
would not be thought mere sentimentalism ; so, to read 
Christ's parables amid the very objects on which they 



432 



JEWISH BUKYING-GROUND. 



were founded, and by the lake which heard them, need 
not be condemned as romantic. There is something 
better than superstition in the wish to read Chrysostom 
at Constantinople, or Athanasius at Alexandria; so there 
is something better still in the longing to read the 
Decalogue on Sinai, the Psalms on Mount Zion, the 
Song of Solomon at Urtass, the Apocalypse on Patmos, 
the last prophecy of Christ on the Mount of Olives, and 
His parables by the Lake of Gennesaret. 

More than once we strolled through the Jewish 
burying-ground, which lay behind our tents. It is con- 
fusedly covered with tombstones, almost all of them 
having Hebrew inscriptions. They are not rough blocks 
like those at Hebron or in the of valley Jehoshaphat ; nor 
have they been hewn for the occasion ; but consist of 
the broken pillars and architectural ornaments of old 
Tiberias. Here lie the Rabbies of the famous college, 
whose members for a time seem to have monopolised 
the learning of Judaism. Whether the body of Ittai, 
the Arbelite, often mentioned in Rabinnical story, was 
brought down to this from his native hills, up yonder, as 
was that of Maimonides from Egypt, we do not know ; 
but beneath these marble fragments, which are strewed 
around, lies many a broad forehead, whose learning, had 
it been classical instead of J ewish, would have won for 
its owner no inferior name. 

We struck our tents at half-past eight, and com- 
menced a new day's journey, invigorated by our Sab- 
bath-rest. Our way lay round the town, so that we 



MAGDALA. 



433 



got a different view of it, from any that these three 
days past had given us. It looked well from the west- 
ward eminence, over which our road lay, its white 
towers and houses gleaming hotly in the sunshine, and 
its few palms standing out in the silver of the lake, un- 
shaken by a breath. Our road was rough ; indeed it is 
not a road, but a mere path winding through the out 
cropping rocks of the slope, with verdure here and there. 
In about an hour we came to Mejdel, the ancient Mag- 
dala, the native town of Mary Magdalene. Early super- 
stition, in order to magnify the grace of penitence, and 
get up an interesting object for painters to delineate, 
and sentimentalists to sigh over, has loaded her with 
sins which do not belong to her, and even Protestants 
join in the defamation of the innocent, so that Magda- 
lene and sinner have become synonymous.* Had Mag- 
dala been like Nazareth, of evil fame for the wicked- 
ness of its citizens, the untruthfulness would not be so 
great. But there is no ground for thinking that this 
was the case ; and Mary the Magdalene, means just 
Mary of Magdala, to mark her out from the other 
Marys that waited on the Lord. Many such distinctive 
epithets we find : Lazarus of Bethany, Philip of Beth- 
saida, Judas of Carioth, Nathaniel of Cana, and above 
all, Jesus of Nazareth. The village of Mejdel is small 
and poor, the shabbiest that we had seen in the land, 
quite like one of those Egyptian mud-hamlets which 

* So we sometimes have in the works of our Reformers " lollardie " 
used for heresy ; long use having associated the words Lollard and heretic. 

E e 



434 



MAGDALA AND TIBERIAS. 



we had passed in the* train, between Alexandria and 
Cairo. Yet in earlier days, it must have been a town 
of some size, with its tower or castle, as its name im- 
ports.* Its situation is a fine one. Higher than Tibe- 
rias, yet not on a hill ; with mountains close at hand, 
yet not hemmed in by them, it stands at the com- 
mencement of the rich plain of Gennesaret, which sweeps 
round the north-western bend of the lake. In former 
times, the two cities of Tiberias and Magdala must have 
almost met each other ; the former coming farther to 
the north, and the latter running down much farther to 
the south, than now appears from the ground between 
them. The statements of the Rabbies make it pretty 
clear that Magdala went so far south, that the inhabi- 
tants of its southern parts could go through Tiberias, 
to Hammath (the village of the warm baths) on a 
Sabbath-day. -J- At present the distance between Mej- 
del and the warm baths is twice a Sabbath-day's jour- 
ney. So close was Tiberias then to Magdala, that on 

* The chaplain of Sir R. Guylford, in 1506, speaks of this castle. 
" Three leagues from Bethulia, not far from Jordan, is the castle called 
Magdahis, whereof Mary Magdalene was lady, not far from the sepul- 
chre of Job." — Pylgrimage, p. 51. Antonio del Castillo (1654) speaks of 
this castle, (i Junto de aqui esta tambien el Castillo Uamado Magdalo, por 
ser de la Madalena," p. 321. I suspect, however, that these old writers 
meant some place nearer the head of the lake. 

+ An aged shepherd came and said in the presence of the Rabbi, " I re- 
member that the people of Magdala used to go up to Hammath, and walk 
through the whole of Hammath (on the Sabbath), going to the farthest 
street, even to the bridge."— Erubhim, quoted by Lightfoot in his Cen- 
turia Cherograpbica, p. 140. 



OLD CITIES. 435 

one occasion when Simeon Ben-Jochi was purifying 
the former, on account of some shambles erected there, 
the voice of the accompanying scribe was heard in the 
latter, saying, " Behold, Bar-Jochi purifies Tiberias/' 

We did not observe the ruins which are said to ex- 
ist,* as we did not examine the ground particularly, but 
we saw the caverns in the adjoining rocks. That which 
now struck us was the broadening of the land into a 
spacious plain. Hitherto the steep sides of the western 
cliffs, coming down almost to the edge of the lake, had 
left little room for cultivation, but now the hills retire 
and leave level ground for a considerable extent. This 
is the ancient " plain of Gennesareth," the present A rdh 
el-Mejdel, one of the richest nooks of Palestine.*)- We 
were now in the latitude of Mount Carmel, and could 
we have looked westward over these hills we should have 
seen its long high ridge. Half way between it and us 
we should have seen Cana of Galilee (John ii. 1), now 
Kana el J alii. And had our time allowed us to climb 
that hill to the left, we -should have come upon Jrbid, 
supposed to be the Arbela of Josephus, and the Beth- 
Arbel of Scripture (Hos. x. 14), just a mile or two from us. 
And up Wadi Hamam, whose stream helps to water 
this plain of Gennesaret, we should have seen the old 
stronghold Kalat Ibn Maan, a a most extraordinary 

He "We observed some indications of ancient ruins, both of walls and 
foundations." Dr Wilson, Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 136. 

t See Narrative of Mission to the Jews, p. 286. Josephus makes it 
thirty stadia (3^ miles) in length, by twenty (2J-) broad, J. W. iii. 10, 8. 



436 GENNESARETH. 

excavated fort/'* After leaving Mejdel we kept nearer 
to the shore, and rode along a beach of the smoothest, 
brightest sand, which we had ever seen. As we had 
bathed already, we did not think of dismounting to do 
so again ; but to keep our horses fetlock-deep in the 
clear sunny water, as we moved slowly onwards, was of 
itself refreshing. Here and there the tortoises were sit- 
ting at the water-edge basking in the sun, so like the 
stone or stump which formed their seat, that one did 
not at first recognise them. They were of all sizes, 
some as small as an orange, others as large as a pumpkin. 
They would allow us to approach, but dropped into the 
water as we passed, and hobbled away. Once or twice 
we struck up from the sandy beach into the green jungle 
of oleanders, that fringed the margin. They were not 
yet in flower, but one or two were beginning to shew 
blossom, as if on purpose to let us know wdiat fields of 
waving purple this shore will present a month hence. 
Our view of the lake enlarged at every step, the whole 
stretch of its sixteen miles coming fully before the eye, — 
one long quivering gleam of sunshine. For more than 
an hour we continued our way along the border of the 
plain of Gennesareth, which, though untrimmed and 
waste, gave evidence of well-watered fruitfulness. In 
beauty, grandeur, richness, and genial softness of climate, 
no spot of Greece or Persia could surpass this. 

* Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 138. It seems to be of this that 
J ewish writers speak, a Sabbath-way west of Tiberias stands J/ao?i." See 
Zunz on the Geography of Palestine, from Jewish sources, quoted in 
Asher's Benjamin of Tudela, vol. ii. p. 425. 



KHAN MINYEH. 



437 



Forget, for shame, your Ternpe ; bury in 
Oblivion your feigned Hesperian orchards ; 
The golden fruit, kept by the watchful dragon, 
Which did require a Hercules to get it, 
Deserves not to be named. 

A little after eleven we reached the point where the 
hills, which had receded for some miles and left room 
for the plain of Gennesareth, approach the lake again, 
and almost drop into it, leaving no sea-beach, and send- 
ing the eastern road over the steep of the projecting 
rock. After this they recede somewhat again, though 
much less considerably than before, and form not a plain, 
but a slope along the shore, till they reach the J ordan. 

At the base of the interposing rock or headland is an 
old Khan in ruins, one of the line of Khans on the Da- 
mascus road, built I know not by whom, but perhaps 
by the mighty Salah-ed-Dm, the great builder of 
Khans and digger of wells. We did not examine it 
particularly, but it seemed in shape and aspect to be 
very like the other Khans which we had seen elsewhere. 
It is said to be built of basaltic tufa. Its name is Khan 
Minyeh.* Near it, and not far from the lake, is a well 
or fountain from which the Khan was in all likelihood 
supplied with water. There is nothing remarkable 
about it, either as to size or excellence. Its gets the 
name of Ain et-Tin, from some fig-tree which probably 
grew near it, but has now disappeared. The ruins to 
the south of the Khan on a small rising ground are in- 

* This is the place which Seetzen gives as the Khan Beit-Zeide, about 
three leagues from Tiberias. Brief Account, &c, p. 20. 



438 AIN ET-TIN NOT THE FOUNTAIN OF KAPHARNOME. 

considerable ; so much so that we should not have 
noticed them had not attention been called to them. 
No large town surely stood here, else it would have left 
some traces of itself. As Dr Robinson remarks of another 
place in this neighbourhood, " the remains are too trivial 
to have ever belonged to a place of any importance/'* 

The well, of course, does not water the plain of Gen- 
nesareth, any more than Abraham's well at Bir es-Seba 
waters the waste region round. It lies low down at the 
south-east angle of it, and merely gives verdure to the 
adjoining ground, which, from its proximity to the lake, 
stands less in need of a fountain than any other part. 
As we saw it, there was nothing remarkable about it. 
It would supply the Khan with purer water, perhaps, 
than the lake affords, but it would not help to cover the 
plain with verdure. If that plain depended for irriga- 
tion upon the Ain et-Tin, it would have always been a 
desert. This well, besides, being useless for the irri- 
gation of the plain, contains no fish ; whereas J osephus 
tells us that the fountain of Capharnaum was famous 
for fish, and especially that it produced the Coracine, 
which is only elsewhere found in a lake at Alexandria. 
This circumstance had given rise to the conjecture of 
some, that it w r as a vein of the Nile. The spring of 
which Josephus speaks must have been the most re- 
markable fountain in the neighbourhood, both because 
of its irrigating power, and its production of the Cora- 
cine, a fish quite different from any to be found in the 

::; Biblical Researches, vol. iii. p. 347. 



NO RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THEM. 



439 



lake. To suppose that the fish of the fountain were 
merely the fish of the lake, is to deny the accuracy of 
Josephus' statement. The conjecture of some that this 
was a vein of the Nile, seems to indicate its distance 
from the lake ; for a fountain within twenty or thirty 
yards of the lake, and, therefore, in all likelihood, sub- 
terraneously fed by it, would not be conjectured to be a 
vein of the Nile. The more that one thinks of the his- 
torian's statement, and examines the details of the lo- 
cality, the more decided grows the persuasion that the 
Ain et-Tin, cannot be the fountain of Kapharnaum. 
There is hardly one point of resemblance between them, 
save that they are both in the region of Gennesareth. 
Dr Robinson's conclusion (after comparing the two 
places), that " these considerations seem to establish the 
identity of the fountain Kapharnum with Ain et-Tin," 
is quite unaccountable.* 

* Dr Robinson has too freely altered Josephus' statement. (1.) He 
alters the epithet yovi/AOorarY) into -ror///,wrar^, (not cror/wrar^ asDr 
Robinson gives it at p. 351, and Bibliotheca Sacra, April 1855, p. 271 ; 
there is no such word), without any reason save that "it is to be pre- 
ferred," and " is given in the earlier editions." But the earlier editions 
of Josephus are not the best, and the later German editions, which are the 
best, read the former and not the latter. See the Leipsic edition of 1850, 
vol. v. p. 309, which follows Havercamp, and professes to be " ad optimo- 
rum librorum fidem accurate edita." But the historian's testimony to the 
" prolific " or "fertilising" character of the stream, is too explicit to be 
neutralised by a doubtful reading; for he adds that the " plain is irri- 
gated by this most prolific fountain," irYiy/j diapdzrai yoviftttTar?}. 
(2 ) He alters the entire statement of Josephus ; so that while the his- 
torian speaks of the benefits arising to the whole plain, from the geniality 
of climate, rr\ rw asouv evxgatfla, and the fertilising fountain, Dr Ro- 



440 



NO LIKENESS IN NAME. 



The name Minyeh does not connect itself with Ca- 
pernaum ; so that this important link is awanting. To 
make up for the want of this, very decided evidence is 
needed from other quarters. Of this there is none to 
be found in the present case. The great proof as to this 
being Capernaum is contained in Josephus' statement, 
that a fountain called Kapharnome irrigated the plain 
of Gennesaret. There are one or two old topographers 
who have connected Capernaum with Minyeh and Mij- 
del, but by far the greater number of such have placed 
that city close by Jordan, as may be seen in all their 
old maps.* 

binson makes this to refer to the nook of Khan Minyeh, " the former 
(Ain et-Tin) creates a most luxuriant herbage and rich pastures, in this 
quarter of the plain," ol. iii. p. 291, 1st edition), — "it does occasion a luxu- 
riant verdure in its vicinity and along the shore," (vol. iii. p. 351, 2d edi- 
tion). (3.) He makes Josephus say that the fountain produced a fish 
like the Coracine," (vol. iii. p. 351;, whereas the historian is stating the 
curious fact that it was the Ccracine. (4.) He fills the fountain with fish 
out of the lake, i( fish could pass and repass without difficulty," (ib). This 
is conjecture, of course ; and Josephus evidently means that the fish were 
not lake-fish at all. (5.) He ascribes the story of there being fish in the 
fountain to mere "popular belief" (ib.), implying that it might not be 
true. Josephus states it as a well-known fact. 

* See the map of Adrichomius, who places Capernaum near the head of 
the lake, and the fons Capharnaum considerably farther down ; which shews 
the ancient opinion that these were not quite adjoining. Heidmann, in 
his map of Galilee, gives the same site to Capernaum. So does Roger ; 
so does Antonio del Castillo. These old writers evidently had Josephus in 
view, who describes himself as being carried., when wounded at Julias, to 
Capernaum, implying that this latter place was not far off. Josephus' 
description may not prove Tell-Hum to be the site, but it sets aside Khan 
Minyeh. 



NEITHER ROOM NOR RUINS. 441 

All ancient writers attest the greatness of Capernaum. 
It was the capital of the district ; a city large in extent, 
numerous in population, and noble in its structures. 
At Khan Minyeh there is no room for such a city ; 
and besides there are no ruins, such as Capernaum 
would leave behind. There is not a hewn stone to be 
found in this spot. The debris of a village is all that 
is left. It is said in explanation that the stones of Ca- 
pernaum were conveyed by sea to build Tiberias. But 
Capernaum was a flourishing city long after Tiberias 
was built ; and the stones of the latter could not have 
come from the ruins of the former. Besides, there are 
ruins some two or three miles north along the lake, 
whose well-hewn stones and pillars have been left un- 
touched to this day.* 

At this point our party separates for a few hours, 
some to go on to Tell-Hum, the rest to keep the Da- 
mascus road, straight north over the hill above Khan 
Minyeli. Those of us who have resolved to take the 
latter way, begin immediately to ascend the hill by a 
road so bad and ruowd that one asks, not so much can 
this be the great Damascus road, but is this a road at 

* Many of the fenced cities of Naphtali were in the neighbourhood of 
this lake. " The fenced cities are Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath 
and Chinnereth," Josh. xix. 35. In Ziddim do we see the origin of Saida. 
or Bethsaida, or Bethsaidan, as it is sometimes written ? Is Gennesaret 
the gen (garden) of Zer, the plain taking its name from the city Zer ] 
Jlammaih is the warm-bath city, a mile south of Tiberias. Rakkath I 
should have supposed to be Kerak or Tarichea, had not the Jews affirmed 
that it is Tiberias. Of Chinnereth one can say nothing. (See Reland, 
vol. i. 161 ; vol. ii. 724. Keil on Joshua, p. 283. Transl.) 



442 



LAST LOOK OF THE LAKE. 



all. Many a lingering look did we take of this bright 
lake, ere the hills shut it out. Its hills were bare and 
grey, its margin was desolate, its cities ruins ; but its 
own beauty was unchanged. As an inland sea or 
mountain lake, it is quite a gem, and at no time could 
it have sparkled more brilliantly than now, when we 
are bidding it farewell. Its palms are gone ; its palaces, 
and temples, and synagogues, are as dust ; its fortresses 
that, like sentinels, challenged each other from its oppo- 
site sides, are swept from their rocks ; its gardens and 
orchards, that surpassed Egypt, and rivalled Persia, 
have withered down ; its rock-sepulchres have been 
filled, and emptied, emptied and filled, and emptied 
again ; Jew, Koman, Christian, Moslem, have come 
and gone ; its innumerable vessels, the pleasure-barge, 
the fisherman's boat, and the war-galley, have vanished 
from its waters ; but there it lies, itself, — untouched 
and unsoiled by earthquake, battle, havoc, blood, 
death, change, ruin. Hermon on the north, with its 
snows, and Tabor on the south, with its oaks, still 
keep watch over its waters. 

As I was not one of the party visiting Tell-Hum, I 
do not attempt to describe it ; but I subjoin Mr Bed- 
dome's brief narrative, with a cut sketched by him on 
the spot. This will show, however, the nature of the 
city which once stood here, — large and well adorned, 
just such as Capernaum must have been. 

About mid-day we reached Khan Minyeh, at the northern 



MK BEDDOME'S NARRATIVE. 



443 



extremity of the plain of G-ennesareth. The khan is now 
in ruins : between it and the shore are several springs, 
from which a brook runs down into the lake. Over one of 
these springs, larger than the rest, stands an old fig-tree, 
and the oleander and other shrubs grow luxuriantly along 
the sides of the stream. Near the khan are a few ruins ; 
but they seem of no very ancient date. 

The Damascus road passes, up the hill, immediately 
above Khan Minyeh, in a northerly direction. This was 
our route to Merom ; but being anxious to visit Tell Hum, 
which lies at the head of the lake, we diverged from the 
main path, still keeping the line of the coast, which here 
runs off in a north-easterly direction, to the entrance of the 
Jordan. Our muleteers and the dragoman took the more 
direct route; Dr Bonar, with two others of our party, remained 
with them. 

A rocky hill rises abruptly behind Khan Minyeh, and 
projects out as a promontory into the lake. Leaving the 
khan, with Ali as our guide, we began to ascend the narrow 
path which leads round the point of this hill, about thirty 
feet above the water. In about a quarter of an hour we 
descended upon a small plain or wady, close to the lake, 
and shut in by the hills. Here there is another fountain, 
considerably larger than that at Khan Minyeh. The stream 
turns a mill-wheel, and then rushes down in a broad stream 
to the lake. As we came up, an Arab was standing in the 
middle of the stream washing his clothes, A few black 
tents were pitched on the shore, and near them were some 
mud huts, inhabited by the owners of the mill. I saw no 
ruins at this spot. 

In about twenty minutes more we reached Tell Hum. 
Here the hills recede from the shore, which, at the same 
time, projects out considerably beyond the line of coast, 



444 



MR BEDDOME'S NARRATIVE. 



leaving between the hills and the lake a large open space, 
covered by a series of undulating mounds. For about a 
mile in length along the shore, and half that distance in 
breadth, these mounds are strewn with stones ; some of 
them quite black, and of a volcanic nature ; others evi- 
dently the remains of former buildings. At the most pro- 
jecting point near the water, is an old ruined tower ; and 
near this, but higher up from the lake, are some ruins of a 
very remarkable character. Pillars, with Corinthian capi- 
tals, shafts, and entablatures, some of marble, others of 
granite and limestone, are strewn about in great confusion. 

One large shaft of marble, which appeared to be part of 
an entablature, I particularly remarked for its elaborate 
carving ; and of this I took a rough sketch. The strange 
device at one end seems intended to represent a building 
drawn on wheels ; the other is ornamented with acanthus 
leaves. 




The mounds, upon which these ruins are scattered, com 
mand the whole length of the lake, and far in the distance 



KHAN JUBB YUSEF. 



445 



may be seen the steep cliffs of Gadara, and the mountains 
above Tiberias. The prospect is an extremely beautiful 
one ; and I saw no other place so well adapted to have been 
the site of a great city. Desolation reigns here now, and it 
seems to be the favourite resort of large flocks of herons, 
and other water-fowl. A few stones are all that remains to 
tell of what Capernaum once was. 

Crossing the mounds of ruins, we struck into a steep 
path, which leads up the hills to the north of the lake, and 
in about an hour we joined the Damascus road. 

Though our road was of the roughest kind, yet the 
hill over which we were moving was not bare. Flowers 
were springing up everywhere, and we noticed immense 
quantities of a plant very like hemlock. We descended 
on the other side and lost sight of the lake, reaching 
Khan Jubb Yusef a little after one. This is another 
of the line of khans on the Damascus road. Ecclesias- 
tical legend calls this the place of the pit into which 
Joseph was cast by his brethren, though that pit must 
have been some forty miles farther south, near Dothan, 
on the high-road between Gilead and Egypt, for the 
Ishmaelite caravan passed by that way (Gen. xxxvii. 
25). Finding a khan here having the name of J oseph, 
probably from the famous Sahah-ed-din,* tradition as- 
sumed it at once as the genuine pit of Dothan. We 

Saladin's name vas Joseph, son of Job, or Yusnf iln Eyub (Bohadin. 
Pref., p. 1). Connected, as he was, with Egypt, he erected many noble 
buildings there, which took the name of Yusvf from him, but were after- 
wards, through ignorance, ascribed to Joseph, son of Jacob. As Bir-Eyub 
was probably called after his father, so Ain Eyub and Tannur Eyub, on 
the north of the Sea of Galilee, might get their names in the same way. 



446 



WATERS OF MEROIvj. 



asked in vain for the pit. Dragoman and muleteers 
knew nothing of a pit, though thousands of pilgrims 
have had it pointed out to them, and paid for seeing 
it. We sat down on some stones at the great gate of 
the khan, and lunched. There was nothing to be 
seen but the heavy old walls of the building, and the 
uneven ground in front, with patches of grass here and 
there. 

Leaving this, we went up a low, stony hill, as usual 
strewed with flowers, — lilies and anemones, in great 
abundance. We soon came within sight of the Hideh, 
or waters of Merom ; beautiful enough, but rather 
bleak and dull, in some respects more like a marsh 
than a lake. We next passed two small villages on 
the left, upon a slope, about three o'clock ; and then, 
in half an hour more, came into a broad green plain 
girdled with mountains. The road was now less hilly, 
and lay through cultivated fields. The verdure was 
plentiful. Hermon seemed very near, and the other snow- 
wrapt ridges of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, rose behind 
it, radiant with sunshine. We then passed through a low 
region, beautifully undulating. We crossed hillock after 
hillock, round and green. The breeze came along 
loaded with fragrance, from what fields we knew not ; it 
might be the banks of the lakelet, it might be Lebanon 
itself ; it might be some nearer " mountain of myrrh and 
hill of frankincense " (Cant. iv. 6). At half-past five we 
reached Malachah, our station for the night. Here a 
most abundant spring wells out of the base of the moun- 
tain, turns a corn -mill, then forms a stream, whose 



GAZELLES. 



447 



banks are green and bushy, then flows on into the lake. 
It is one of the many sources of J ordan ; for from all 
we see and learn, Jordan is more than a " double-founted 
stream/' Its springs are many ; all of them fresh and 
clear. 

During our last half-hour's ride, we started a good 
many gazelles, which served to remind us that we were 
in the range of the " hinds " of Naphtali (Gen. xlix. 21), 
the region of the " hind let loose/' There were five or six 
on the edge of a ploughed field, who looked at us and 
then vanished ; and others down to our right among the 
brushwood that fringed the somewhat precipitous earth- 
banks of the lake. Some of our party followed, gun in 
hand, but in vain. These " wild roes " were as wise as 
they were fleet, and seemed to know here as elsewhere 
that man was not their friend. They were not large, — 
smaller than our common goat. But they were light and 
fleet ; so slender in limb that, as they went along, you 
only saw their bodies. Their whole frame w r as cast in 
the finest mould of grace and speed. When we saw 
them first, they were " feeding among the lilies " (Cant, 
iv. 5) ; but in a moment they were off,- — " leaping upon 
the mountains, skipping upon the hills " (ib. ii. 8). 
Very pleasant was such a sight, to remind us of what 
has been called the Church's " long-drawn sigh/' 

" Make haste, my beloved, 
And be thou like a roe, 
Or a young hart, 

Upon -the mountains of spices." (Cant. viii. 14) 
"Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. xxii. 20). 



CHAPTER XVI. 



▲IN EL-MELLAHAH — WATERS OF MEROM — TRIBUTARY STREAMS — BANIAS 

T RANSFIGUR ATION HILL TELL -EL- KADI THE HASBANY KALAT 

ESH-SHUKIF NEBUTIYEA SIDON SAREPTA TYRE ACRE 

KAIFA — CARMEL JAFFA. 

Ain el-31ellahah, Tuesday, March 18. — Walked out 
about six, the morning cloudy, but pleasant. First went 
up to the heights above our tents (westward), from which 
I got a full view of El-Hideli or the waters of Merom, 
as well as of the small stream flowing into it from the 
spring at our tents. Sitting on the slope of the hill, 
near some piled up brushwood which seemed to be a 
sort of enclosure and protection for cattle, I read the 
16th and ]7th chapters of Matthew, the scene of which 
lay before me. Here are the coasts of Cesarea Philippi 
(Matt. xvi. 13), to which Christ took his disciples apart, 
from the busy scenes of Galilee and Jerusalem. In 
some of yon north-eastern solitudes, the Lord found 
the retirement which was to be held nowhere else, in 
this populous land. Through this he may have passed 
on his way to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 

I wandered down the banks of the stream for a little. 



MEROM, ITS MARSHES AND STREAMS. 



449 



They are skirted with jungle and look very green, 
though sadly untrimmed and waste. Trees as well as 
shrubs were here, some just coming into leaf, some with 
white blossoms hanging on every bough. There was a 
pleasant fragrance coming from them, and the aspect of 
the country was that of fertility. 

"We started northward at eight, to reach Banias in 
good time. That place seemed not above a three 
hours' ride, but to avoid marshes and streams, we had 
to make a long circuit which made it more than twice 
that. We passed along the foot of the westward range 
of hills. They appeared about a thousand feet in 
height, each one distinct from his fellow, and forming a 
separate abutment down upon the plain where we were. 
We saw some wood upon them at different parts. The 
plain is fruitful. We found cattle in considerable num- 
bers, and Arab tents, or rather huts, made of reeds, like 
wicker-work, forming a small moveable village, which, 
with its inhabitants, flits about for pasture to the cattle. 
About eleven o'clock, we saw to the left, just before we 
turned more to the east, a village which we were told 
was Ibnean. I do not find it noted in any map or men- 
tioned by any traveller. If I am right in the name, it 
may be the Jabneel or Jebneel of Joshua (Josh. xv. 11, 
xix. 33). 

We crossed several small streams, clear and rapid, 
hastening down to swell the J ordan, — the Derderah, 
the Hasbani, which looks more like Jordan than 
a tributary of it, and the Leddan. About twelve, we 

Ff 



450 



ARAB RACE. 



came to what apjoeared the extremity of the plain, and 
entered quite a forest of oaks. The road was very 
rough, partly through newly ploughed fields, over a gentle 
eminence ; but it was quite romantic, on account of the 
variety of wood, young and old, shrub and tree, oak and 
olive. We reached the banks of the Banias a little 
after two, somewhat in advance of our tents, though 
our baggage-mules had been pushed on at quicker speed 
than usual, on account of the rivalry between the two 
parties. This seems the only way of quickening an 
Arab's pace, and convincing him that his mules can 
move rapidly, even under burdens. We had noticed, 
at starting, how clever and rapid our dragoman was in 
dismantling our tents, providing breakfast, and packing 
the luggage. He was thoroughly in haste, and got the 
start of Abd-el-Atih and the American party by some 
ten minutes. Over the plain of El-Huleh, and across 
the different streams, there had been a race for nearly 
six hours ; but, as we were not along with them, we 
only saw its close. We were standing under the large 
olives on the level circle (almost a hollow), where we 
were to encamp for the night, when the two foremost 
mules made their appearance over the eminence already 
noticed. They were both tolerably well loaded, and, in 
addition, had their drivers on the top of the baggage. 
The mukray, or muleteer of Abd-el-Atih's caravan, was 
a tall Nubian, black as coal. Haji Ismael's muleteer 
was a tawny Syrian, quite as tall and majestic as the 
Nubian, by name Assad, an active fellow, but hot in 



THE VICTORY. 



451 



temper, and of a tongue so unmanageable and vocife- 
rous, as to be quite an annoyance to quiet travellers. 
They bad been racing the most of the way (as much as 
heavy-loaded mules could do), each alternately overtak- 
ing the other, and each determined to be foremost. As 
they came over the brow of the rising-ground, they were 
within six yards of each other, the Nubian, ho we ver, being 
first. Scarcely had they begun the short descent, than 
the Nubian's baggage, which was loose and ill-balanced, 
gave a lurch to the right. This was too much for the 
mule. It stumbled and came down, driver and baggage 
rolling on the ground. The poor black came with such 
force to the ground on head and shoulder, that I thought 
he would be stunned, and I ran to help. In less than 
half a minute he was on his legs, re-adjusting the 
load ; for the mule had risen instantly, and stood wait- 
ing to be re-loaded. Assad saw that the day was his, 
and without waiting to assist his fallen brother, he 
pushed forward, and distanced his fellow -muleteer. 
No shout of triumph arose ; but instantly all set 
to work, unloaded the winning mules, and in less 
than ten minutes, every stitch of canvas was unfurled, 
and duly fastened with pin and loop. This completed 
Haji's victory over Abd-el-Atih, Yet five minutes was 
all the difference between the two, such was the celerity 
with which the fallen baggage had been replaced. 

We have encamped, for once, on " the other side of 
Jordan/' 

Now for a ramble by the stream, and an explora- 



452 



NAHR BANIAS. 



tion of this source of the J ordan ! Descending the 
steep bank of earth, which is a thicket of verdant 
jungle, I tasted the stream and refreshed myself with 
a thorough washing in it. This is only a tributary 
(and one not noted in any map that I have seen), 
yet it has a tolerable amount of water, which hurries 
along over rocks and stones, under the shade of fig-trees 
and oleanders. From this we passed over to the foun- 
tain of Banias, which feeds the main stream. The 
amount of water in this stream is greater than we ex- 
pected to see so near the source. It rushes past the 
town wildly like a highland torrent ; yet it has a con- 
siderable breadth. It does not now issue out of a cave, 
as used to be said. Certainly there is a cave, and a very 
spacious one, at the spot. But it is quite dry, and evi- 
dently used as a shelter for cattle. It is now consider- 
ably raised above the bed of the stream, but in former 
days may have been on a level with it, as the stones 
with which its floor is covered are loose. From under 
this bed or platform of stones, which, however, in front, 
looks quite like part, of the rock, the river pushes itself 
out, its springs bubbling up in all directions, and form- 
ing an ample basin, which some give as an hundred and 
eighty feet in breadth. A noble beginning this for any 
river ! This breadth of course narrows itself a little 
when the basin discharges itself into the river. Still 
the width of Jordan from its very source, as here seen 
in Nahr Banias, strikes one as peculiar, and somewhat 
noble. To issue all at once in full breadth, from such a 



ROCKS AND INSCRIPTIONS. 



453 



mountain as Hermon, to pass into such a lake as that of 

Galilee, and then to end in such a sea as that of Sodom, 

this is no common story for a river. One calls to mind, 

. . the Egyptian traveller when he stood 
By the young Nile, and fathomed with his lance, 
The first small fountains of that mighty flood. 

Yet, as we moved about along the edge of this basin, or 
crossed it on the large stones which are scattered over 
it, marking the depth, and clearness, and rush of this 
new-born river, we saw what made us ask afterwards, if 
even the Nile has a beginning so noble as this ? 

The niches and half-erased letters on the face of the 
rock, to the left of the cave, we saw, but were not much 
struck with them. Yet they are suggestive way-marks 
in the past history of the place ; and as the inscriptions 
of Wady Magharah carry one back at once to the days 
of Pharoah, so do these rock-cut records of Banias carry 
us back to the days of Herod and Augustus. The in- 
scriptions are not half so old as those in Magharah or 
Mukatteb, and they have been carefully cut in the lime- 
stone rock, a much harder substance than the crumbling 
sandstone of the desert ; yet the desert writings are to 
this day sharp and fresh, while these of Banias are so 
effaced by time as to be almost illegible.* 

* Our Lord visited this region ; yet there is' no record of his resort- 
ing to this town, though there is no unlikelihood of his having done 
so. By Matthew we are told that he came into "the coasts of Csesarea 
Philippi," (xvi. 13), while Mark (giving us, as he often does, little pieces 
of supplemental information) tells us that it was into "the towns cf 
Caesarea Philippi " that they came, (viii. 27). 



454 



KALAT BANIAS. 



We visited the village and castle. The latter was 
the chief attraction, on account of the view on all sides 
from its top. Ascending its rained, grass-covered walls, 
Mr Poynder and I sat down upon the top to look around 
us. Itself a ruin, it is situated in the midst of ruins, 
ruins which indicate the former magnificence of the 
town. There were large bevelled stones lying here and 
there, and the castle itself must have been a fine one. 
At its foot rushes the Banias, noisy but clear in its 
flow ; while on all sides, up to the very walls, rise trees 
of every leaf and name. Banias occupies not so properly 
a terrace, but a slight hollow on a broad rising-ground, 
which slopes up gradually to the hills. That raised 
hollow begins at the low ridge where we had seen the 
Nubian tumble ; and from that line the platform or 
shelf, which there sinks down a little, continues very 
gradually to rise ; so that the town is somewhat elevated 
above the plain, and beautifully planted in a mountain- 
nook as rich and well-watered as any spot which the 
land contains. It is not every town that has a plain 
before it such as el-Huleh, nor such a stream as that of 
Jordan to water it, nor such a mountain as that of Le- 
banon to guard it. 

The heat here was great, and though the wind rose 
afterwards, yet, towards evening, all was so still and 
close that one began to think of a thunder-storm at 
hand. And though this was not quite a pleasant anti- 
cipation to dwellers in tents, yet it would have been 



TRASFIGUKATION. 



455 



something to hear Syrian thunder, and see the Syrian 
lightning at the foot of Hermon. The sun was about 
to set, but it was half-smothered with clouds ; and the 
quiet of the afternoon, though very acceptable in itself, 
was rather ominous. It was strange to lie oppressed 
with heat in this low-sheltered nook, and yet to see 
above us the unmelted snows of the mountain. Down 
here all summer is around us, while winter sits up 
yonder ! * 

In the course of the evening we had under conside- 
ration the passages which record our Lord's visit to 
Caesarea Philippi. We saw from them that the trans- 
figuration must have taken place in this region and not 
in Galilee, of course not on Tabor. To the top of one 
of those mountains which he saw from Pisgah was 
Moses brought when he appeared with Elias ; so that, 
having already seen the land afar off, he might now see 
it near, and see too " the King in his beauty/' (Isa. 
xxxiii. 17). What mountain it w r as we did not pretend 
to determine, f 

* Now upon Syria's land of roses 
Softly the light of eve reposes, 
And, like a glory, the broad sun 
Hangs over sainted Lebanon ; 
Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, 

And whitens with eternal sleet, 
While summer, in a vale of flowers, 
Is sleeping rosy at his feet, 
t Before it took place (as we have already noticed) it is said that the 
Lord and his disciples were in this region ; and after it was over they went 



4?56 walk up the wady. 

Banias, Wednesday, March 19. — The wind rose dur- 
ing the night, and clouds were moving above us. Still, 
when I went out at six, the morning was fine and the 
heat considerable. I walked about for more than an 
hour in all directions, among the olives and other trees 
which cover the whole platform. I went up the small 
stream, on the banks of which our tents were pitched, 
for about half a mile. It was wooded all the way, but 
its channel soon became dry. It seemed to curve slightly 
round the mountain and lead into a wild glen, into 
which, however, I had not time to follow it. I did not 
learn its name, nor do I know whether it has one, but 
I should suppose it to be an unnamed brook flowing- 
out of Wady el-Asal, at the foot of Hermon, and join- 
ing the Banias just at the castle. At the upper part 
of it, where it passes into the gorge, I sat down amid 
some oleanders and fig-trees, and read those chapters 
of Matthew which relate to this region. The wady 
which strikes up from this into the mountain-gorge is 
said to be the haunt of wild beasts ; and often in con- 
nection with this morning's scene have these words 
come into mind, 

south into Galilee, by Capernaum. Mark says, " they departed thence," 
that is, from Caesarea Philippi, (ix. 30), and that then they " passed 
through Galilee" (ib.) and " came to Capernaum," (Matt. xvii. 24; Mark 
ix. 33). The transfiguration thus took place probably " on the other 
side of Jordan," which our Lord seldom visited, save here and at the Sea 
of Galilee ; and it was as if he were thus formally taking possession of 
these eastern provinces as his kingdom, claiming Manasseh and Gilead, a 
well as Ephraim and Judah, (Pisa, cviii. 8). 



TELL EL-KADI. 



457 



With me from Lebanon, my bride, 
With me from Lebanon thou shalt come : 
Thou shalt look from the top of Amana, 
From the top of Senir and Hermon, 
From the dens of the lions, 

From the mountains of the leopards. (Cant. iv. 8.) 
For several days Lebanon has been in sight, and for 
several days more it is to continue so. I knew not 
how it was, but there was something indescribably 
attractive about that noble range. A thousand me- 
mories, both stirring and soothing, more venerable than 
its majestic clouds, floated over it. And we have since 
that, sometimes felt what it was to be " sighing for 
Lebanon/' 

We started from our olive-grove at half-past eight, 
the morning growing cloudier, and spreading out its 
mists thickly above us, portending rain, we think, 
though some of our Arabs say not. We took our way 
at first over the same wooded eminence as on the pre- 
vious day, but afterwards kept more to the north. On 
our left, about half a mile from us, and about half an 
hour from Banias, we saw Tell el-Kadi, the hill of the 
Judge,* a small bushy mound, in a plain, where the 

* Ingenious as is Dr Wilson's conjecture that Tell el-Kadi is the Arabic 
rendering- of Dan, we feel doubtful on this point. The natives do not 
translate names, they corrupt them. Is this not the ancient Kadesh 
of Naphtali, or some other place of that name, and perhaps the Kadytis 
of Herodotus 1 Kadesh, or something like it, seems to have been a com- 
mon name in this distiict, if we may judge from the Haddatha near 
Tibnin, and el-Kadi, Kadisha, and Hadith on the way to Beirut. The 
Kadytis of Herodotus was certainly somewhere in this northern region of 
Palestine. 



458 



DAN. 



Jordan finds another of its many springs. This is 
supposed by some to be the ancient Laish or Leshem, 
afterwards called Dan. by the tribe of that name, in 
honour of their ancestors (Josh. xix. 47), of whom it was 
said, 

"Dan shall judge his people, 
As one of the tribes of Israel." (Gen. xlix. 16).* 

It was somewhere into this green territory, this place 
for flocks and herds, that the lion of Dan took his leap 
from the hills of Bashan (Deut. xxxiii. 22), making his 
den in Laish, " the place of the old Hon/' Driven back 
by the Amorite into the mountains (Judges i. 34), he 
made many a leap into a plain below, nor did he rest 
till he had made Laish his own, and set up there not 
only a judge, but a priest and a graven image (Judges 
xviii. 30). Upon Tell el-Kadi, Wady A sal may be 
said to open, and it is not impossible that in A sal we 
may have the remains of the ancient Laish or Laisa.^ 
The whole of this neighbourhood seems to have been 
originally the haunt of wild beasts, and Laish and Asal 
may be the " lions' dens " of Solomon (Cant. iv. 8). 

A little to the north of this, or rather to the north of 
Banias, we are told is a place called Ruhaib y \ which 

* Dan is mentioned first of the children of the handmaids, and to him 
(as to the other sons of the handmaid, I suppose) is here given equal tribal 
rank and authority, with the sons of Rachel and Leah. See Quarterly 
Journal of Prophecy, vol. i. p. 364. 

t We were not near enough to see the heaps of stones and old founda- 
tions which Dr Wilson mentions. 

X I owe this information to Mr Thomson of Sidon, who had recently 
travelled this tract. Mr Thomson spoke also of a wad}" corresponding to 
the valley mentioned in Scripture, Umefc, Beth-Rehob (Judges x^iii. 23). 



THE HASBANI. 



459 



clearly indicates the site of the ancient Beth-Rehob. 
For of Laish, it is said, that it was " in the valley that 
lieth by Beth-Rehob," (Judges xviii. 28). There is, 
about two miles south' of Tell el-Kadi, near the place 
where we crossed yesterday, a grove of large trees 
mentioned by Dr Wilson, but which we had failed to 
notice. It is called Shajar ed-Difneh, and he supposes 
that this is the Daphne mentioned by Josephus as the 
place up to which the marshes of the lake extended, and 
which has fountains supplying the lesser Jordan, under 
the fountain of the golden calf.* 

Our road was wild and rough for a time, not marked 
by any object of interest. Suddenly we found ourselves 
upon the edge of a deep ravine, down the precipitous 
side of which we had to descend by a rocky road 
no better than a sheep-path. After a little difficulty, 
but no evil, we reached the wooded bottom of the dell, 
through which were flowing the rapid waters of the 
Hasbani, now beginning to swell a little, as if there 
had been rain farther up, or as if the snows of the two 
Lebanons had begun to melt. As there was no bridge, 
we had to ford it as best we could. At some places it 
looked much too rapid, and at others too deep for such 
a purpose. The ford, however, was pointed out by the 
native of Banias, who had undertaken to be our guide ; 
and I have seen worse fords in Scotland than this proved 
to be. In we plunged, and without much difficulty 
crossed. Our baggage-mules, however, did not find it 

* Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 173. 



460 



ABIL. 



so easy, and the passage of the commissariat across the 
stream was watched by us with considerable interest 
from the shore. The bed of the stream was rough, not 
without holes ; and the rush of water against the limbs 
of the heavy laden mule threatened to throw him over at 
every step. From side to side the baggage swayed, 
sometimes touching the surface. Slowly did the cau- 
tious creature lift and plant his steps. Eagerly did the 
driver cheer him on with his voice. Gradually the 
stream grew shallower, the rapids were passed, and the 
western bank was ascended, not without some thankful- 
ness on our parts, as there was small pleasure in the 
prospect of having beds, tents, and provisions drenched 
in water, if not carried down the stream, and perhaps 
floated into the lake of el-Huleh. 

Up the hill on the opposite side we pushed, passing 
Abil, a village upon an apparently artificial mound, 
the ancient Abel of Scripture (2 Sam. xx. 14, 1 5, 18 ; 2 
Kings xv. 29), which lay near to Beth-Maachah.* It 
was to Abel that Sheba, the son of Bichri, the Benja- 
mite, fled in his rebellion against David, pursued by 
Joab and the men of Judah. It was here that the wise 
woman of the city persuaded the citizens not to resist, 
but to " cut off the head of Sheba and cast it out to 

* In 2 Kings xv. 29, our version gives A lei-Beth- Maachah as one word : 
from which some have concluded that Abel and Beth-Maachah were the 
same. But the Hebrew may mean " Abel of Beth-Maachah," as in 2 
Sara. xx. 15 ; or the list may run thus — He fl took Ijon, and Abel, Beoh- 
Maachah, and Janoah. and Ke lesh," &c. 



THE DERDAUAH. 



461 



Joab."* It was here that they were wont to speak in 
old time, saying, — " They shall surely ask counsel at 
Abel, and so they ended the matter " (2 Sam. xx. 1 8).-f* 

But now we have to pass down again into another 
glen, not quite so steep and rugged as the former. It 
is the glen of the Derdavah, a smaller stream than the 
Hasbany ; barer, perhaps, also, but still wild and beau- 
tiful. About a mile up we saw some fine waterfalls, 
where the Derdarah was making its way down to us 
over rocks of no inconsiderable height, through a narrow 
ravine. A little more wood w r ould greatly have added 
to their beauty. Was it from these cascades that the 
city Abel-Maim 3 the house of waters, took its name? 
(2 Chron. xvi. 4) + 

The day was not brightening ; the clouds were draw- 
ing closer to each other, and on the hill-tops mists 
were gathering, as if brought up by the west wind from 
the sea. Eight before us, at the distance apparently of 
four or five miles, rose a height, round whose top a 
special mist-wreath seemed to have gathered. A breeze 
swept past and drew the curtain aside, and we saw, 

* It is curious to notice that Sheba, though a Benjaniite, was " a man of 
Mount Ephraim " (2 Sam. xx. 21). 

+ The expression "a mother in Israel," used in this passage, has been 
generally referred to the wise woman herself. But may it not refer to 
the city, which lay here as a mother with her daughters around her. Abel 
was evidently an ancient and a great city. It is poor enough now. 

£ Are Abel, Abel-Beth-Maachah, and Abel-Main, the same, as some 
think ; or are they not distinct, though all of them having connection 
with Abel, and that with some great scene of mourning once witnessed 
here 1 



462 



KULAT ESH-SHUKIF. 



girt with a grey mantle of mist, the old castle of Esh- 
Shukif (Kulat esh-Shukii), perched upon the peak, 
leaning over an enormous precipice. As we neared it, 
the view shifted its lights and shadows every five 
minutes ; the mist and the sunshine alternating, and 
giving us the finest specimens of " dissolving views " 
that we had seen. The region is mountainous in the 
extreme, but not bare. Wood, grass, and flowers, meet 
us in all directions ; the damp of the morning seems 
to bring out their odours ; and as we passed along, the 
fragrance was refreshing, — all the more because it was 
" the smell of Lebanon" (Cant. iv. 1 1 ; Hos. xiv. 6). For 
this is. the region of Lebanon, and these heights over 
which we are moving, are the lower hills which undulate 
between the two great ranges of that well-known chain. 
We started in the morning from the foot of Anti- 
Libanus, and we were now on our way to Libanus (or 
Lebanon). It is on one of the southern heights of the 
latter that the Kulat above referred to is placed. We 
soon approached this, and as the noon now shone out 
more brightly, we had a full view of the whole, first 
from the opposite height (where our photographers staid 
behind to do their work), and then from the gradual 
slope by which we went down into the ravine below. 
The castle is extensive, stretching over a considerable 
portion of the rocky height. It did not look ruinous, 
though it must now be upwards of seven hundred years 
old. The height of the great perpendicular rock-wail 
on which it stands is at least fifteen hundred feet. I 



NAHR LITANI. 



463 



never saw a more imposing structure. Whether as a 
watch-tower or as a castle, it is a place worth being 
noted. The fierce rush of the Leontes (Nahr Litdni) 
along the base of the cliff completed the grandeur of 
the scene. 

For a considerable distance here the Leontes makes 
its way through like ravines. It seemed as if this part 
of Lebanon had been cleft right along the ridge, and a 
passage made for the old river ; which pursues its wild 
way, with noisy haste, for many a mile, through these 
almost inaccessible ravines. 

After descending almost to the river, we turned 
gently to the right, and took our way for some distance 
along the rugged slope which falls down to the stream. 
The road was distinct enough, but as rough as can be 
conceived, and allowing only one abreast, as is indeed 
the case with most of the roads of Syria. We met two 
mounted Druses on the way. saluting them civilly of 
course, but passing them with difficulty, on account of 
the narrowness of the path. All this time the precipice, 
with its castled summit, was at our left, far above our 
heads, with only the river between. A wild path, in- 
deed ; and in the twilight gloomy enough ; yet how 
truly did it represent Lebanon ! 

We soon reached the bridge, a little way up the 
stream. It is old, and looks rather crazy ; yet it is 
solidly built, and perhaps was more elegant in earlier 
days, though it could not look more picturesque than 
it does now. 



464 



NABUTIYAH. 



We now ascended the hill on the western bank of the 
river. The road is steeper than on the other side, and 
so entirely unmarked, that our men were several times 
at a loss as to the way, for our guide had been dismis- 
sed before we crossed the bridge. As we passed up the 
wild steep, we got a view of the Castle on its western 
side. It was now almost behind us, and did not look 
so romantic as before, the gradual slope of the hill 
taking off the boldness of the site. 

Passing Tibnin, we came about half-past three to a vil- 
lage on the left, on a hill-slope, Nabutiyah el-foka, that is 
" Nabutiyah the upper/' We should gladly have halted 
here, as the day had again quite overcast, and the rain 
was pouring down ; but our dragoman wished to pro- 
ceed a little farther to Nabutiyah el-tahta, that is " Na- 
butiyah the lower/'' On we went in the rain for a mile 
and a half, when we reached the last-named village at 
four o'clock, and got ourselves safely lodged in one of 
the houses of the fellahm, where we were soon surrounded 
with the natives, all most civil, but rather troublesome. 
They stood at windows, in which, of course, there 
was no glass, but enly wooden shutters ; they gathered 
round the door ; they crowded into the house ; but 
they did not in any other way annoy us. They are 
Christians of the Greek Church, and look remarkably 
clean and bright. The children greatly attracted us, 
both by their pleasant manners and their comeliness. 
They were shy at first, but soon became our friends, 
taking hold of our hands, and kissing them. The priest 



THE PASSES OF LEBANON. 



465 



came in and seated himself on one of the camp-stools ; 
but not being able to communicate with us, he soon 
went away ; not, however, till he had serutinised most 
minutely ourselves and all that belonged to us. 

The latter part of our journey to-day has lain through 
a considerable amount of cultivation, which would have 
been seen to better effect had it not been for the rain. 
We observed several new houses by the way, giving us 
to understand that the district is a thriving one. The 
village in which we are, looks new in great part ; and the 
house in which we were, though dingy in the inside and 
admitting the rain in large drops through its clay-plas- 
tered roof, was evidently a new one. 

The road over which we had passed to-day was more 
continuously mountainous than any we had seen. It 
brought us over, I know not how many, of the spurs 
and offshoots of Lebanon. Yet, rugged as it is, it must 
have been one of the great roads between Banias and 
Sidon. Even in the very earliest days of Israelitish 
history, there was a connection between these two 
places, as is implied in the history ox the Danites 
(Judges xviii. 7, 28). Of the inhabitants of Laish, it 
is said that " they dwelt careless, after the manner of 
the Zidonians." It is intimated, also, that though they 
were a far from the Zidonians," and their city "far 
from Zidon/' yet it would have been from Zidon that 
help was to have been expected against enemies. In 
what way they were connected with Zidon, we do not 
know ; and it would be interesting to discover why it 

G £ 



466 



PHCEXICIAN PLAIN. 



was to Zidon that they should have looked, and not to 
Tyre, seeing this latter city lay nearer, and the road to 
it was not so entirely mountainous. Possibly Laish was 
older than Tyre, and therefore draw r n to Zidon by a 
contemporary antiquity. In the passage just cited, 
however, it is intimated that the communication be- 
tween Laish and Zidon was a very uncertain one, which, 
from the nature of the intermediate region, we could 
well imagine it to be. 

Nabuteyah el Tahta, March 20.— The rain still con- 
tinues ; but we set off about nine, after a not very com- 
fortable night. The road all forenoon was very rugged ; 
not so mountainous, perhaps, as yesterday ; for we are 
on the lower spurs of Lebanon, but still quite rugged 
enough to make it troublesome. We crossed I know 
not how many hills and ravines, with not a yard of 
level road at any part. At twelve, the "great sea" 
burst on our view from one of the heights. How 7 blue 
and beautiful, stretching away interminably to the far 
west ! At two, we came down into the plain, the 
great plain of Phoenicia, about three or four miles south 
of Zidon, which city we now see for the first time, and 
which, even from this distance, looks beautiful, whether 
viewed in connection with the sea or the land. 

As we were riding along the road, not far from the 
shore, a fierce thunder-storm broke over us, which com- 
pelled us to seek shelter for a little in a small building 
on the right, in front of which there was a porch, under 
which we halted, without dismounting. We arrived at 



SIDON. 



467 



Sidon, now Saida, a little after three, and went to the 
French Khan, an immense building, with a large square 
in the middle, and a gallery running round on all sides. 
Our rooms were not clean, and our wet condition made 
them, perhaps, look drearier than they really were. 

Mr Graham and I afterwards proceeded to the house 
of Mr Thomson, the American missionary, who received 
us most kindly, and gave us a great deal of interesting 
information on the localities through which we had 
passed. He has been upwards of twenty years in Pales- 
tine, knows it well, and speaks Arabic as his native 
tongue. 

The rain ceased for a little, and we took advantage 
of this to visit the old castle. It is still used as a kind 
of fort, though ruinous, and" stands on a flat piece of 
rock in the sea. A bridge connects it with the town. 
We spent more than an hour here, not so much struck 
with the castle itself, as with the view around which it 
afforded us. On all sides, how lovely is this city ! What 
a contrast to such a town as Alexandria ! The sea on 
the one side ; then the town itself, fringed with trees of 
every kind, — the mulberry, the tarfa, the orange, and 
the fig ; then the rich plain, sloping up gently to the 
east ; then Lebanon, looking down over all, — Lebanon, 
now receiving the last rays of the fitful sun upon its 
grey rocks and white snows. The beauty of Sidon is 
far beyond what I had been led to expect. 

Sidon, March 21. — The rain was upon us down here 
in the plain, but snoiv has been up yonder on Lebanon ; 



468 



SAREPTA. 



for the mountains look decidedly whiter than on the 
previous day. We started at half-past ten. The bazaars 
here, through which we passed on our way out, were 
cleaner and better furnished that in most of the places 
where we had been. Indeed, 'the whole town has a 
superior air. We rode southward along the shore, part 
of our road being the same as that by which we had 
come yesterday. Wind and rain assailed us bitterly for 
an hour. Still we got a good view of the broad and 
fruitful plain that lies betw r een the hills and the sea ; 
a plain in ancient days so amazingly cultivated, and so 
completely studded with cities and villas, as to appear 
for miles one great continuous city, fringed and inter- 
spersed with gardens of every kind. Euins lay around 
all the way. 

About half-past twelve we came to large ruins on the 
shore, with a corresponding village on the height to 
the east. This was Sarafend, the ancient Sarepta.* 
These loose stones carried us back to Elijah and the 
widow. I picked up a piece of marble as a memorial. 
Sarepta was not a village, as we generally suppose ; it 
was a town or city ; for all the places along this coast 
were in ancient days cities ; so great was the wealth 
flowing in upon Phoenicia from the innumerable re- 
gions with which it maintained commerce. As we 
passed on, I observed remains of splendid mosaic pave- 

* Sarepta has thus (probably for safety) gone up from the plain to 
the hill ; adding another to the numerous towos in Syria built on hills. 
One might almost say that more than half the inhabitants of Palestine 
live on hills. 



TYRE. 



469 



ments, — relics of buried grandeur. The mosaic floors 
of these merchant-villas were now the traveller's high- 
way ! How fearfully has God avenged upon these 
cities, the pride, the love of pleasure, the self-deification, 
which he denounced on them by his prophets. It would 
seem as if love of ease, pleasure, luxury, lasciviousness, 
were the special sins of merchant-cities. Besides these 
mosaics, we passed pillars and carved work in all direc- 
tions, strewing the road like pebbles or fallen leaves. 
We seemed for miles to be treading the graveyard of 
cities. 

Before two o'clock we came in sight of Tyre, stretch- 
ing out into the sea, As we came nearer, we saw the 
huge waves, driven up by the strong west wind, dashing 
against its rocks, and greatly increasing the beauty of 
the scene. Pillars of granite and marble lie in frag- 
ments along the shore. About four miles from Tyre, 
we crossed the Leontes by a rude stone bridge, and 
reached Tyre at four, . having ridden sharply during the 
latter part of our journey The road between Sidon 
and Tyre is reckoned eight hours ; we completed it in 
little more than six. 

The rain had for some time ceased, so we set out for 
a walk along the shore, to the south. Pillars of red 
granite, some almost entire, some in small fragments, 
lie scattered on the sand and in the sea. It was strange 
to see the waves washing, not over rocks, but finely 
polished pillars ! At one of these granite fragments, I 
halted and bathed. Fishermen passed us with their 



470 



A COAST OF RUINS. 



nets ; but I saw none spread out to dry. We afterwards 
surveyed the city, — its broken arches, spanning part of 
the harbour, its innumerable columns wherever the eye 
turns, its mounds of ruin outside, with the various 
fragments of ancient splendour which have been so 
often described. It is not so beautiful as Sidon, nor 
surrounded with so much verdure and fruitfulness. A 
few palms grew inside, but outside there were none. 
What melancholy memories came up over that old sea, 
which is washing in upon us, and over which had 
flocked to this great ocean-market the ships of a hun- 
dred shores ! 

The road between Sidon and Tyre is, as I have noticed, 
strewed with half-buried ruins. Every mile or so we 
come upon fragments of pillars, hewn stones, heaps of 
debris, patches of mosaic, and the evident foundation of 
something more than villas or villages. It seems as if 
the whole of this eastern sea-plain had been for twenty 
or thirty miles, at least, a forest of cities, the suburbs of 
Tyre, and rivalling that city in splendour. Nestling 
between the sea and Lebanon, or sometimes climbing 
the lower slopes of that range, spreading out their por- 
ticoes of red granite, and their towers of white marble, 
to each day's setting sun, what a picture must there cities 
have been of security, and wealth, and power, and gran- 
deur ! But all these have gone, with the great city 
itself. " The SUBURBS shall shake at the sound of the 
cry of the pilots/' (Ezek. xxvii. 28). They as well as 
she have been made " like the top of a rock/' places 



DAUGHTERS OF TYRE. 



471 



"to spread nets upon/' (Ezek. xxvi. 14?). Here and 
there some relic of their greatness shews itself above the 
ground, but to one looking along the plain, nothing ap- 
pears but a great sand-swept level, broken by rocks and 
hillocks ; but unrelieved by the dwellings of men. 

. . . The sands are here, 
But not the foot-prints. Would'st thou trace them now ? 
A thousand tides and storms have dashed them out, 
Winds brushed them and waves worn them, and, o'er all, 
The heavy foot of time, who plods the shore, 
Replenishing his sand-glass, trodden down 
Their vestiges and mine. 

These splendid suburban cities were, I suspect, what 
the prophet refers to when predicting Nebuchadnezzar's 
invasion of this region ; he paints the ruin not only of 
Tyre, but of her " daughters/' " Her DAUGHTERS which 
are IN the field shall be slain by the sword/' "He 
shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field, 
and he shall make a fort against thee," (Ezek. xxvi. 6, 
8). The expression " daughters," for villages or towns 
dependent on a central city, is, as w r e have seen else- 
where, a common one in Scripture ; and as we have 
no doubt as to the meaning of " Gaza and her daughters/' 
"Bethel and her daughters" (1 Chron. vii. 28), we need 
to have as little doubt as to the meaning of Tyre and 
" her daughters." 

Tyre, Saturday, March 22. — At half-past six I went 
to walk on the roof of the house, which commands a 
wide view on all sides. The morning was clear but 



472 



LADDER OF TYRE. 



rather chill, and during the night there had been rain. 
The sea spread out nobly to the west, while the southern 
ridges of Lebanon rose on the east, a broad, fruitful sea- 
plain, with slopes striking up to the hills, lying between. 

A little after ten we started for Acco or Acre, under 
bright sunshine, along the sands. We still see the frag- 
ments of granite and marble, over which the sea is flinging 
its foam, for the surf is coming in heavily, the memorials 
of yesterday's storm. Lebanon, with its ridges of snow, 
still towers to the left. We passed some ancient reser- 
voirs, which the Pasha is repairing. We soon reached 
the Has el-Abyad or " white promontory/' anciently 
known as the ladder of Tyre. A bold flight of steps 
carries you up the slope, winding round to the other 
side. These steps are broad and well-cut in the solid 
rock, and are, I suppose, coeval with Tyre itself. The 
promontory in which they are hewn dips right into the 
sea ; and as we stood upon it, and marked the distant 
blue of the sea, and the nearer white of the wave as it 
broke upon the rocks far beneath us, we thought that 
we had not seen many things more truly magnificent. 

Descending on the southern side, we pushed along 
the shore, again ascending and descending an eminence 
that came down from the heights to the east. After this 
we came to Ez-Zih, the ancient Ecdippa, and the more 
ancient Achzib. It lay close upon our right, between us 
and the sea, beautifully planted on a gentle eminence. 
All round it, landwards, is an undulating plain, bright 
with flowers and verdure, through which we rode along. 



AQUEDUCT. 



473 



The evening was calm and fair ; the sun was going down 
over the sea in cloudy brilliance ; and the quiet of the 
sunset reminded us (as often such sunsets had done 
at home) that " the Sabbath was drawing on/' 

About two miles from Acco, we saw the great aque- 
duct, by which water comes into the city from the 
adjoining heights. It is a noble piece of workman- 
ship, extending for, I daresay, two miles ; its tall, graceful 
arches, adding greatly to the beauty of the scene. We 
seemed, as we got nearer the city, to be passing through 
a region of gardens and orchards. But the most strik- 
ing object was the cypress, which seems to be cultivated 
here to a greater extent than we had seen it elsewhere. 
These trees were generally in long rows, of great height 
but very slender, and so dark in their green that you 
would suppose them in the distance to be quite black. 
We reached Acco about half-past five. We took up 
our abode in the Latin Convent, and were tolerably 
comfortable, though the rooms were bare and ill-furnished. 
We had outridden our baggage, so that when we arrived 
we had no provisions, and the monks could give us 
nothing but eggs and coffee, of which we partook 
thankfully. 

In the evening the English Consul, Mr Finzi, called 
on us, and was very kind. He brought us the news 
that the regiment of JBashi-bazooks which had been en- 
camped within a mile of the city, had this morning de- 
serted, and marching off with their horses and arms, 
were scouring the country for plunder. We were thank- 



474 



ACCO. 



ful that they had not come across our path ; and no 
less so that our journey was so ordered as to have 
brought us here at this time, and not left us at Tiberias 
or its neighbourhood ; for the plunderers are said to have 
gone in that direction, and are perhaps by this time 
robbing Kana-el- J alii or Nazareth, or Tiberias itself.* 

A ceo, Sabbath, March 23. — The greater part of the 
day was spent upon the " housetop/' Besides the 
inducement of the fresh air, the view was noble, and 
the quiet most invigorating. But the bay has been so 
often described that a mere line of notice here is suffi- 
cient. Many of the public buildings of the town bear 
traces of the last siege. The marks of shell and ball are 
visible all around. This is the ancient Acco, out of 
which the Asherites could not drive the inhabitants 
(Judges i. 31). It is the Ptolemais of later days, to 
which Paul went from Tyre to salute the brethren, and 
" abode there one day" (Acts xxi. 7). We had worship 
at twelve in one of our rooms. 

Acco, Monday, March 24. — We started after break- 
fast along the bay of Haifa. Part of the way was by 
the margin of " that ancient river, the river of Kishon," 
now el-Mukutta. Once it had swept away the hosts of 
Sisera ; at this time it had not water enough to enable 
it to force a passage to the sea. It seemed to be quite 
absorbed in the sands of a long bank which ran between 

* We heard afterwards that, after robbing some villages in Galilee, they 
had returned in straggling parties and submitted themselves. They were 
under English officers. I suppose they are long ere this disbanded. 



CARMEL. 



475 



it and the shore. Continuing our sunny ride along the 
sands, we reached Haifa at eleven, and learning that 
the steamer for Jaffa was expected here next day, we 
halted, as some of us were minded to sail, not to ride, 
to Jaffa. Leaving our men to pitch our tents we as- 
cended Carmel. The road slopes gently up along the 
side of the hill amid olives and other trees, and in about 
twenty minutes we were on the top, gazing round us 
upon sea, and plain, and mountain. Having visited 
the convent, we took our way down the hill ; and on 
our arrival at our encampment we discovered one of our 
tents lying prostrate. A hail-blast, which we had 
observed while in the convent, had swept along the base 
of the hill, and our tent-pole, which had stood many a 
desert-blast, snapped in two. This, however, could 
easily be put to rights, so we did not trouble ourselves 
about it, but having bathed and dined, we spent the twi- 
light in a saunter along the sea-beach gathering shells. 

Bay of Carmel, March 25. — Last night the storm 
was terrific, and how our tents withstood it I know not. 
The thunder rolling over Carmel, and the lightning 
every five minutes flashing through our canvas, kept 
us awake most of the night. All forenoon, at intervals, 
this was renewed, with wind, and rain, and hail. The 
thunder seemed as if first issuing out of Carmel ; then 
after lingering a moment there, it took its way over the 
hills of Galilee ; then going northward, it coursed along 
the peaks of Lebanon to Tyre and Sidon, from which it 
swept over the great ocean, which blackened and rose 



476 



SAIL TO JAFFA. 



beneath the bursting tempest-blast. We sat in our 
tents gazing and listening. We should not have liked 
to miss the scene. It is not every day that one sees 
a thunder-storm over Carmel. 

In the afternoon we embarked in the Austrian steamer 
for Alexandria, with no less than six hundred Greek 
pilgrims, from Cyprus and other places, bound for Jeru- 
salem. We did not sail till next day, as the high sea 
running upon the coast would have prevented the cap- 
tain from landing his pilgrims at Jaffa. It was not till 
Thursday morning that we found ourselves anchored 
before Jaffa. We went ashore and wandered for some 
hours amid its palms and orange-groves, breathing the 
delicious fragrance that filled the air. Towards evening 
we embarked, and on Saturday morning sailed into the 
harbour of Alexandria. 



We have made a circuit of the land and seen its hills 
and vales ; its plains and table-lands ; its streams and 
lakes ; its fields and forests ; its cities and villages ; its 
poverty and its abundance ; its beauty and its desola- 
tion. It is not now what it once was, nor what it is yet 
to be. The marks of exhaustion, neglect, down-tread- 
ing, and divine judgment are everywhere. South and 
north, from Simeon to Naphtali, the scene is the same. 

The least of the towns of Galilee contained, in 
former ages, fifteen thousand people, according to Jose- 



THE ANCIENT TENANTRY. 



477 



phus.* Now all of them together would not yield 
that number, and Jerusalem itself does not exceed it. 
The whole land has been emptied, and its inhabitants 
" slung out" to the ends of the earth. Its cities have 
shrunk into towns, its towns have become low mounds 
of rubbish, and its villages cannot now be distinguished 
from the fields out of which they rose, or the rocks to 
which they clung. The old forts, too, have gone to 
pieces ; or where they may be said still to subsist, they 
present, with a few exceptions, mere shattered walls. 
Yet often when the city or the tower has perished, the 
name has survived, like the fragments of an epitaph 
upon a worn or broken headstone. 

The lake of Gennesareth still spreads itself out be- 
neath as bright a sun as ever, but the living crowds that 
moved along its rocky margin are no longer there. The 
hills of Gilead still cast their shadows over it, and 
Hermon, in the northern distance, still keeps watch 
above it, and Tabor still peeps through the intervening 
hollows to catch a glimpse of its beauty, and Jordan 
still fills it with the melted snows of Lebanon ; but in 
other respects the change between the present and the 
past is as marked as it is sad. 

The old tenants of the land are gone, and though the 

* Those who think that Josephus is exaggerating, should read the 
description given by Schiller of the condition of the Netherlands upwards 
of 200 years ago. Within that narrow territory there were "350 cities, 
alive with industry and pleasure ; 6,300 market-towns of a large size; 
smaller villages, farm?-, and castles innumerable." — Revolt of the Nether- 
lands, B. 1 



478 



WASTE PLACES. 



new occupants are Easterns not Westerns, they are but 
remotely kindred to the people whose soil they possess. 
Not by inheritance certainly has the land become theirs. 
The old language, too, has passed away, though per- 
haps the new has greater affinity to the old, than dur- 
ing the centuries before or after Christ, when the Greek 
tongue spread itself over the country, especially in Gali- 
lee.* For if the Chaldee and Syriac are daughters of 
the Hebrew, the Arabic, which is the offspring of these 
two former, is only removed by one or two degrees from 
the old language of Abraham and Moses. 

The land too lies waste. Not only money and skill, 
but men are awanting to till it. It has a rich soil, as 
the thistles of Esdraelon, no less than the gardens of 
Urtass, tell. But there are no hands to drive the plough 
through its mould ; and even though there were, the 
want of security for property would deter men from risk- 
ing anything upon its cultivation. It " lies desolate, 
and keeps its Sabbaths," (Lev. xxvi. 34). The traveller 
through Palestine sees that there are " few men left," 
(Isa xxiv. 6). The- soil, left to itself, has gradually been 
washed down, and the fields have become bare and 
rocky. Verdure has become scanty, and the summits 

* Gadara and Hippos had become Greek cities ; Strabo, b. xvi p. 759, 
(Casaubou's edition). So had Bethshan, Tyre, Sidon, Dor, Ashkelon, 
Gaza, and many others; Hug's In trod, to the N. T., Part ii. ch. i. sect. 
10. See that curious little work Dominici Diodati de Christo Grsece lo- 
quente exercitatio; qua ostenditur Grsccam sive Hellenisticam linguam 
cum Judreis omnibus turn ipsi adeo Christo et Apostolis nativam ac ver. 
uaculam fuisse. Naples. 1767. 



ALTERED FEATURES. 



479 



of the hills are bald, and their shoulders seem as if 
clothed in sacKcloth. The olive still clings to height 
and hollow (type of Israel's predicted fruitfulness, Rom. 
xi. 17), but the palm has vanished.* The tree of glad- 
ness and triumph has folded up its leaves, and waits for 
happier days. In J erusalem there are but three stunted 
palms, none worthy to be the tree under which "Judaea 
Capta" might sit down to mourn her desolation. The 
few that still wave at Jenin, Tiberias, Nablus, aud along 
the sea-coast to Jaffa, are but poor memorials of the 
past. 

It bears no trace of Israel's land. The heel of the 
Gentile has broken all its ancient monuments to pieces, 
save what could not be effaced, the sea, the mountain, 
the rock, the valley, the river, the lake. But the mi- 
naret of each village you pass, tells you that the land 
is "trodden down of the Gentiles." Only four Jewish 
cities remain, Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, Safet, and 
in these Israel has but a remnant. The 480 synagogues 
of Jerusalem, and the 400 synagogues of Bether,t with 
the multitudes of similar sanctuaries throughout the 
land, are no more. The Christian churches have fallen 

* The olives are fine trees, much, more so than in the south of France. 
They do not seem to have deteriorated. Olives and thistles grow luxuri- 
antly. One may know what the soil can bear by the olives of Beit-jalah 
and the thistles of Esclraelon, 

t See the statements on this point, from Lightfoot and others, collected 
by Bingham in his Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 304. Goodwin states the num- 
ber briefly ; Carpsov, his annotator more fully. Moses and Aaron, b. ii. 
ch. 2, sect. 3. 



480 



HOW LONG ! 



into ruin, — churches that once crowded the land so 
thickly, that the condition imposed by the Saracen con- 
queror, " that the Christians should not be allowed to 
build new churches," was a benefit not a hardship. 

The land belongs to Israel by an entail that has not 
been cancelled. Yet at present he has no possession 
here. Not only does the Eastern Gentile rule and op- 
press ; but the Western Gentile is laying his hand upon 
the soil. The Greek and Latin churches are very largely 
buying up the land, as if to secure it against Israel's 
claim. How long their lease will be, is not for us to 
determine. We merely notice the fact, as an indica- 
tion of how entirely at present the country has passed 
out of Israel's hands. Israel does not now " dwell in 
safety ;" the " fountain of J acob" does not pour itself 
out " upon a land of corn and wine," (Deut. xxxiii. 28). 
The " fountain of Israel" (Psa. lxviii. 26) is dried up, 
and the channels of its endless streams throughout the 
land are utterly empty. 

Go where you will, death reigns, for the " life from 
the dead ' (Rom. xi. 15) has not yet come. Salem, the 
city of the living, is now but the tomb of the dead. As 
is the centre, so are the extremities ; as is Jerusalem, so 
are Beersheba and Sidon. Place your finger anywhere, 
on body or on limb, you feel no throb of life. Pass round 
and through the land, you find it still the same. There 
is no pulse in any of its veins, for the great heart that 
sent these pulses out has long since ceased to beat. 



APPENDIX, 



PART I. — NOTES ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF 
JERUSALEM. 



The " stranger from a far country,'' looking upon Jerusalem from 
any of its heights, would not be struck with it as a city built on hills. 
It is so set, but at first sight it does not seem so. Age, war, peace, 
friends, foes, builders, spoilers, have so done their work of levelling 
and filling up, that a nice eye is needed to mark, in the slight undu- 
lations which the city presents, the ancient hills of which Scripture 
and Josephus speak.* But a more careful scrutiny shews us the four 
hills, with perhaps Ophel, the spur of Moriah, as the fifth. " Its 
foundations are on the holy mountains," (Ps. lxxxvii. 1). We had 
opportunity of ascertaining this somewhat accurately, as we did not, 
like the "Beatus Hilarion," Jerome's friend, remain only one day in 
the city, but spent three busy and inquiring weeks, inside and outside 
its walls.f 

* These were at first two, Sion and Akra ; afterwards four, Moriah and Bezetha 
being taken in ; these two last connected more with Akra than with Sion, which 
stood alone and above the others, though viewed either from Scopus or Olivet it 
seemed the summit of the one ridge, which appeared to slope gradually upward 
from the Kedron. Some old writers, both Jewish and Christian, have tried to 
make Jerusalem a seven-hilled city; (See Tanchuma, cited by Lightfoot; Cent. 
Chor., p. 45; Wolfii Curae Philol., vol. iv. p. 577; and especially the treatise of 
LaJcemacher de Hierosolyma Septicolli. Observ. Phil,, Part iii. p. 285); but in trying 
to do so they take in the three tops of Olivet, resting on a Rabbinical statement 
that Jerusalem extended to Bethphnge. The matter is not an important one, but' 
some Apocalyptic interpreters, having thus got seven hills, apply Rev. xvii. 9, to 
Jerusalem, as others do to Constantinople, and others to Babylon. But the 
*' Urbs Septicollis" had but one reference both in classical and Patristic usage,— 
" Septem urbs alta jugis, toti quse praesidit orbi." — Properiius. 

t " Beatus Hilarion cum Palaestinus esset, et in Palrestina viveret, uno tantum 
die vidit Hiersolymam, ut nec contemnere loca sancta propter viciniam, nec rursus 
Deum loco claudere videretur." Jerome's Ep. to Paulinus. It is in this episstle 
that the following memorable sentences occur:— "Non Hierosolymis fuisse, sed 
1-5 ierosolymis bene vixisse laudandum est ; et de Hierosolymis et de Britannia 
aiqualiter patet aula coelestis." 

H h 



4S2 



NOTES OX THE 



But as to the " mountains being round about Jerusalem/' there 
could not be a moment's doubt, for one cast of the eye from Scopus 
to " the Hill of Evil Counsel," or from the Mount of Olives to the 
western heights which slope up beyond the city walls, shews the whole 
girdle of enclosing hills, the only slack, or flattening, being where Re- 
phaim forms a plain for itself towards the south-western region of the 
city. Few cities in the world, if any, are so firmly hemmed in by 
natural bulwarks. Hence, toward the east and south, increase was 
i Jipossible, unless the city should grow large enough to take in the 
entire mountains beyond the girdling valley. On the north it could 
swell out a considerable way, and did so, as Josepkus tells us, occupy- 
ing Bezetha, which at first, in the days of the Maccabees, was a village 
out.ide the walls,* from which the hill took its name. On the west 
it might have crept up the slopes, and planted itself on the undula- 
tions there to some extent ; but this it does not seem to have done, or 
at least but in a limited degree. 

Should " the stranger from the far country " walk round this circle 
of hills, keeping along the inner descent, that which slopes down to 
the city-walls, he will be struck with the numerous tombs that strew 
its surface. Beginning on the east, at the foot of the Mount of Of- 
fence, he will pass through the Jewish burying-ground with its thick- 
strewn monuments; then he will come to the tombs of Zacharias, 
James, Absalom, and Jehoshaphat, above which, farther up the hill, 
and between its southern and middle peak, are " the tombs of the 
prophets." Then crossing the Kedron, before reaching Scopus, he 
comes to several old ruins of tombs ; then to the tombs of the Kings, 
then to those of the Judges ; then passing southward, he sees several 
tomb-like excavations here and there, till he reaches the modern 
Moslem grave-yard above the Birket Mamilla. Striking eastward, 
by what is called the valley of Hinnom, he soon finds himself on the 
rocky shelf of Akeldama, that strange hill of deep-hewn sepulchres. 
Thus, is the city of the living girdled with the tombs of the dead ! 

Within this circle of sepulchres, the stranger observes another, a 

* " And Bacchides removed from Jerusalem and encamped in Bezeth : and be 
sent and took many of the men who had deserted from him, and some of the 
people, and slaughtered them at the great pit," (1 Mace. vii. 19). This was AC 162. 
The pit seems the same as that mentioned Jer. xli.9. It was made by Asa, and 
used afterwards by Ishmael for casting the slain into. It would thus" seem that 
Bezeth, Mizpah, and the great pit were hard by each other. It is clear that Miz- 
pah could not be at Neby Samwil,but much nearer Jerusalem, a little way beyond 
Bezeth. The incidents are mentioned by Josephus, (Ant b. xii. ch. 10. §2; b. xii. 
ch. 11. § 1); but the brief statement in the Book of the Maccabees shews the posi- 
tion of Bezeth, which Josephus' account does not. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



483 



natural trench, or scries of trenches, which, in the shape of valleys or 
ravines, nearly endasp Jerusalem. If he takes his stand to the north- 
west of the city, about the hill of Ashes, or a little farther south, on 
the road to Lifta, he will find that he occupies the centre of the only 
plain or slope which is not thus trenched. Looking northward he sees 
the bed of the Kedron sweeping round the whole north of the city, 
then bending southward, and forming the deep trench between Olivet 
and the eastern wall, till it terminates in the steeps above Bir Eyub. 
Looking round to the right, or southward, he sees the bed of the Gihon, 
as it is called, beginning not far from him, then taking a long bend 
that sends it quite round the southern walls of the city, where it deepens 
into the valley of Hinnoin and terminates in Bir Eyub. These two 
ravines, or river-beds, Kedron and Gihon, or as some prefer to call 
them, the u valley of Jehoshaphat" and the "valley of Gehinnom,'' 
so bend themselves as to encompass nearly five-sixths of the city with 
a natural entrenchment. 

The fourth circle is the walls themselves, with their four open gates, 
the Bab el-Khulil (Hebron, or YaiTa gate), on the south-west ; the 
Bab el-Amud (Damascus gate), to the north-west; the Bab el-Hotta 
(St Stephen's gate), to the east ; the Bab el Nebi-Daud (Sion gate), 
to the south. * These walls are strong and well-built, thirty or forty 
feet high, with ledges, battlements, and towers. The stones, in most 
places, as their size and polish shew, are of Jewish extraction, belong- 
ing, probably, on the west side to the ancient towers of Herod, and on 
the south-east to the still more ancient temple. They have under- 
gone great changes, especially in their position, as the city gradually 
contracted itself to its present dimensions. On the east side there has 
been little change in their site, as, from the nature of the ridge, they 
could at no time have been projected much farther than they now 
are. Hence the fallacy of the old ecclesiastical statements as to the 
site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which all assume that the 
city, on contracting itself, has shifted westward, and so embraced spots 
which were anciently without the walls. If the western wall was drawn 
in so very far at the supposed site, as to allow the sepulchre to be 
even twenty yards without the gate, it would give to the city as 
awkward and misshapen a contour as any city, either of east or west, 
ever presented, bringing it into the form of a sand-glass, with a middle 
so small and tight-laced as not to afford room for its inhabitants to 
breathe. What object could be thus served it passes one's compre- 

* Not far from the last is the Bab el-Moharbe7i, near the south west angle of the 
mosque. This we never saw open. It may coi*respond with the ancient Dung- 
gate. 



484 



NOTES OX THE 



hension to conceive. There was ample space to build on ; there was 
no hindrance in the shape of rock or precipice ; the builders of the 
modern town have occupied all this ground : yet we are asked to be- 
lieve that the original planners of the city, without reason or object, 
at this point, cut into the regular curvature of the city with a long 
and unmeaning indentation or angle, the only effect of which would 
be to disfigure the city. 

Without attempting to construct a map of the city, or to establish 
any complete theory as to all its localities, we may be allowed to 
offer some suggestions upon the several parts which present them- 
selves to the notice of the student or the traveller. Till extensive 
excavations have been made in various parts, both within and with- 
out ; till more complete examination has been carried out by men 
who have resided in Jerusalem for months or years, small advances 
will be made in fixing the topography of Jerusalem. Ecclesiastical 
tradition must be laid aside; the Bible, Josephus, and the books of 
the Maccabees, must be more thoroughly examined and trusted. 
Eusebius and Jerome, as gleaners of the last relics of the true geo- 
graphy of Palestine, must be listened to, — yet not always quite im- 
plicitly ; the rubbish of Rabbinism must be carefully sifted, as con- 
taining much true information ; all this must be done, ere we can 
have any prospect of reaching certainty in the topography of Jerusa- 
lem. In most pjiaces of the land we can have recourse to native 
tradition, which is more trust-worthy than ecclesiastical. But for 
Jerusalem, we have almost nothing of this kind to resort to, so com- 
pletely has the legendary nomenclature of the church overlaid and 
supplanted that of genuine antiquity. The names of places in the 
city or its neighbourhood, with one or two exceptions, such as Silwan 
for Siloam, are either monkish or Mahommedan. 

We may try, however, to get at some truth, and to correct some 
error. Our hints may help others in a fuller investigation, which, we 
trust, is not far off. 

T. Rephaim.* 

The people that gave name to this plain were the original posses- 
sors of the land, before the Canaanites occupied it.f Shalem, or 

* The modern name of this is simply el-Baka. the plain. 

t See the articles on the Rephaim in Dr Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature, 
especially that in No. IV. for July 1S52, p. 311-315. "The alteration in the 
ancient name of Shalem (into Jebus) is as strong an indication of its haying 
passed over to the power of the Jebusite children of Heth, as its geographical 
position, in the very middle of the line along which the domains of the Rephnini 
are traceable, is, per se, strong evidence that the metropolis of Palestine originally 
claimed them as its masters." 



TOFOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



485 



Salem, was the metropolis, and the plain in the neighbourhood of 
their capital took and retained their name. The Rephaim were not 
giants, though some of them may have been, and our translation 
should have given the Hebrew name as it stands ; — valley, or plain of 
"Rephaim," instead of valley of "giants." Salem and Rephaim are 
thus the two oldest names in connection with the city, the two remain- 
ing fragments of the original owners. 

The valley of Rephaim, while extending considerably to the south 
of the city, seems to have gone farther north than is generally sup- 
posed, stretching, I believe, to the entrance of the Tyropcean valley, 
and arrested by the hill of Akra, which, in the original state of the 
country, when there was no citadel on Mount Sion, must have formed a 
very conspicuous object, not hidden by Sion, but coming out to the west, 
and terminating the great plain. Indeed, from the point of Ophel up 
to the north-western extremity of the Kedron, under Scopus, there was 
a curving succession of heights, — Ophel, Moriah, Akra, — which origi- 
nally, before their summits were levelled, must have formed the obvi- 
ous termination of the undulating plain which lay to the west and 
south.* It was along this line that the border-line went, between 
Judah and Benjamin. " The border went up to the top of the moun- 
tain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the 
end of the valley of Rephaim, northward" (Josh. xv. 8).f The bor- 
der-line thus carried along by the top of Moriah and Akra, would 
divide the city into two paits, giving the upper city to Judah, and the 
lower to Benjamin. This would explain the otherwise inexplicable 
tradition of the Jews, that part of the temple belonged to the one 
tribe, and part to the other; nay, it would shew us why they affirm 
so uniformly that all the altar, save its south-western angle, was in 
Benjamin. The border-line running over the top of Moriah, — that is. 
over the es-Sakhrah, where we suppose was the altar, — would divide 
the altar into two. Eusebius and Jerome affirm that the valley of 
Rephaim was north of the city, — not meaning to confine it to this ; 
but shewing us that they believed it to extend farther north than we 
suppose. 

* To one coming from Bethlehem, the eastern end of Akra would be hdden ; 
but the western extremity (nearly as high as Zion, till levelled by the Asmo- 
lieeans) would stand out as the termination of the great plain. Whether it were 
called Akra from its being the hill "behind." or " beyond," may be a question. 

♦ Understanding before as east, I take this difficult passage to mean, "the line 
went up to that top of the range which lies eastward of the tuest end of Hinnom, 
—that range where the valley of Rephaim terminates on the north." So in the 
parallel passage where the line i^ traced in the opposite direction : — " The border 
came down to that end of the mountain, that is eastward of Hinnom, which is 
in the northern pait of the valley of Rephaim." (Josh, xviii. 16). 



486 



NOTES ON THE 



II. HlNNOM. 

This has gone by various names. — such as Ennom, Gi-hinnon, 
Geenna. Gi-Ben-Hinnom (valley of the son of Hinnom;. This last is 
the full and Scriptural one. Jerome, referring to Jeremiah, speaks 
of it as " amcenus atque nemorosus."' Here were " nemus ac Incus," 
watered "by Siloe. " Ipsa an tern vallis juxta portam est qua: Hebraice 
harasitJi, hoc est fictilis appellator," on Jer. xix. 2. 

If the statements which I am shortly to make be correct, then the 
mouth of the Tyropceon would be the centre of the valley of Hinnom ; 
and it may be asked, whether Gi-Ben-Hinnom is not the ancient 
name of the Tyropceon. It is curious that Josephus never mentions 
Hinnom, and it is as curious that the Rabbies never mention the 
Tyropceon. According to Josephus, the Tyropceon must have been 
originally the most remarkable valley about Jerusalem. Strange that 
not a Rabbi speaks of it, and that not a J ewish tradition has preserved 
the name ! According to Scripture and the Rabbies, Hinnom was the 
most noted valley about Jerusalem. Strange that Josephus should 
not refer to it, either in his Antiquities or in his Jewish War ! If 
Hinnom and Tyropceon were the same, this is accounted for. The 
word Tyropceon is utterly unknown to the Jews, ancient or modern ; 
and how Josephus came by it, is not easy to say. Can he have blun- 
dered a Hebrew word ? Quite possible ; for it is a curious fact, that 
the Seventy Alexandrians, as good Hebrew scholars as he, have blun- 
dered on this very word. They translate Q^m^ * n ^ sa - btviii. 16 
(heights), which is almost identical with □^HjH^ (valley of son of 
Hinnom), by tbtv^jj/msvov^ cheese-made, or montem coagulatum, 
according to the Vulgate. If seventy learned Jews mistook the for- 
mer of these two words for " the hill of cheeses" (or " curdled hill") 
because of its likeness to the word gibeon, to curdle, or gubna cheese, 
why should not one less learned Jew mistake the latter (Gibeninnom) 
for the same, and render it rvpcroio; ? It certainly would be strange 
that the most important valley in Jerusalem should take its name from 
the cheese-trade.* TVe should have less reluctance to connect it with 
Nehemiah's goldsmiths, Tsiireplrim, of whose energy in building the 
wall he makes mention three times over, in conjunction with the 
Racnolim, or merchants.! 

* The Rabbies, though they are particular in giving directions about cheese- 
making and cheese-eating, as to the exact pressure to be applied, and as to 
whether Gentile cheese may be eaten, make no reference to a valley of checse- 
makers, which is unaccountable if there were really such a valley. 

f The '/surephim were properly the smelters (Jer. vi. 29 ; Neh. ill- 8, 31, 32> The 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



487 



Of late years, this name has beer, affixed to the deep hollow or glen 
south of the eity, extending westward from Bir-Eyub. But this re- 
striction is modern, countenanced neither by Scripture nor antiquity. 
If our version be correct, then Jeremiah xix. 2 indicates that the val- 
ley of Hinnom lay to the east of the city, — " Go forth unto the valley 
of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate," (Mar- 
gin, sun-gate). Eusebius and Jerome are quite explicit in their 
affirmation of this. The latter frequently alludes to the place as 
being "close by the walls of Jerusalem, towards the east f as being 
at the foot of Moriah ; as being watered by Siloam,* and near the 
fuller's pool. The old Arabic historians are equally decided in their 
statements that Gehinnom is not south, but east of the city.f Full of 
Moslem fable as is Jalal-Addin's History of the Temple, it shews us 
quite as distinctly, as docs the Journal of Ibn-Batutah, that in the 
middle ages as in the earlier centuries, Hinnom was reckoned east of 
the city, close under the temple wall. u Abadat-ibn-al-Samat once 
stood leaning his breast upon the eastern wall of the mosque, looking 
down into the valley of Hinnom, and weeping. Being asked the 
reason, he said that the prophet once told him that he saw hell there. 
Over this valley, is the bridge of Sirat. The bridge at Sirat, over 
Gehenna, forms the path to paradise." % The ecclesiastical travellers 
are equally distinct ; only some of them, like Felix Fabri, while giving 
as its commencement the bed of the Kedron, at the valley of Jehosha- 
phat, affirm that it extends away down past the Mountain of Offence 
(which was especially the mountain of Hinnom, " suus mons"), through 
the Wady en-I\ar to the Dead Sea, or " Sea of the Devil," as he 
calls it.§ The Spanish ecclesiastic, two centuries later, is very precise 
in his statements as to its being east of Jerusalem, just under the 
Mount of Offence, near the pool where clothes are washed, and the 

Charasim were the craftsman, who formed the molten metals into vessels, &c. 
(Exod.xxviii. 11 ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 12.) The Rachalhn were the merchants who sold 
the goods (Neh. iii. 31. 32 ; xiii. 20 ; Ezek. xxvii. 3, 13). 

* De locis Hebraicis ; also, Comment, on Matthew x. 28; Jer. vii. 31, and seve- 
ral other places. Tophet they make to be in Hinnom, between the potter's field 
on the one hand, and fuller's pool on the other. 

t Ibn Batutali, p. 123-4. " On the side of a valley, called Gehennah, to the east 
of the eity," &c. 

X Jalal-Addin, p. 7- " This is the wall of the Eaitu-l-Mukaddas. within which is 
the gate of Mercy, and without the valley of Hinnom." The name given by this 
writer to the church over the tomb of the Virgin, is " the church in the valley of 
Gehenna ;"' p. 143. When Omar ibn-al-Khattab was having the filth cleared away 
from the Sakhra, he soiled his garments, and went out as far as the two fountains, 
which are in the valley called the valley of Hinnom," p. 180. 

5 Fabri Evagatorium, v..l. i. p. 39l-?>94 ; vol ii p. 135, 133. 



488 



NOTES OX THE 



King's gardens.* The Jews are equally unanimous as to the eastern 
position of Hinnom, making it to be the lower part of the bed of 
Kedron, commencing with the eastern gate of the city.f The travel- 
lers in the seventeenth century, such as Sandys, and in the eighteenth, 
such as Thomson, are not very distinct in their statements, but had. 
apparently altered the side of this valley to the place where is gene- 
rally pointed out now.J They give no reasons for altering the old 
topography. Nor does Dr Robinson enter into any statement on this 
point, though he gives a full description of the general locality. He 
follows the travellers of the last two centuries, merely noticing that 
some Arabic writers apply the name of Hinnom to the valley of 
Jehoshaphat.g 

It is, however, I think obvious enough, both from Scripture itself 
and from all early sources of information, Christian, Arabic, and 
Jewish, that part at least of Hinnom lay to the east of Jerusalem. It 
did not consist, however, of the narrow ravine of the Kedron, ex- 
tending from Absalom's pillar, or thereabouts, to the village of Siloain, 
or Nehemiah's well. It took in the low spur of Ophel, with the mouth 
of the Tyropceon, on the west of Ophel, up to the walls. All this seems 
originally to have been called the valley of the son of Hinnom. 
Whether it included also the southern ravine, now called Hinnom, is 
uncertain. It is more likely that this was the potter's field, at the 
termination of Gihon, where were the King's gardens, and the pot- 
ter's field, and the fuller's field, and above which, on the shelving cliffs, 
was Akeldama, the field of blood (Acts i. 19). || 

The hill which Josephus calls Eroge, must have been somewhere 

* Antonio del Castillo, p. 71,72, 171, 172, 173. See also Brocardus, Adrichomius 
and Heidmann. This last places it near Absalom's pillar. — Palestina, p. 4G. 

t Lightfoot's Centuria Chorographica, p. 77. Rabbi Petachia (twelfth century), 
speaking of Olivet and the Jewish burying-ground, says, 4i the ground is cleft. 
and is called the valley of the son of Hinnom, where their burial place is."— 
Travels, edited by Benisch, p. 61. 

I Sandys, p. 188 ; Thomson, vol. iii. 172, 173. Cotovieus places it on the south, 
but then he sets it beside the Mount of Offence, which shews that he meant east, 
or at least south-east, especially as he adds, that some place it about Gihon.— Jtin. 
b. ii. last chap. 

g Vol. i. pp. 239, 269, 273. 

!| The "highway of the fuller's field"(2 Kings, xviii. 17; Is. vii. 3), was the way 
leading down to that field from the south-western part of the city; just as "the 
way of Ephratah" (Gen. xxxv. 19, in our version, the way to Ephratah) means the 
way which leads to that city. De Saulcy places the fuller's field to the west of the 
city, opposite to Damascus gate. His strong asseverations do not satisfy the reader : 
and there is no proof that the " fuller's monument" mentioned by Josephus stood 
in the "fuller's field." A manufacturer does not usually erect his tomb in the 
midst of his warehouses. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



489 



westward ot Aceldama ; for he describes it as being split by an 
earthquake, in the days of Uzziah, and rolling towards the eastern 
hill (Mount of Offence) and choking up the King's gardens with its 
debris.* As none of the Hebrew names of places adjoining Jerusalem 
resembles this (Eroge), either in sound or meaning, it is impossible to 
say exactly where Eroge was. It might be a name afterwards given 
to the hill in consequence of the earthquake, — " the clift ;" and if we 
knew whether Josephus were translating, or merely clothing a Hebrew 
word with Greek letters, we might be able to say whether or not 
it was his rendering of the Hebrew, Bikhah (cleft), or a corruption of 
Har-Gai (hill of the valley). f 

III. GlHON. 

There are two passages of Scripture that indicate pretty nearly the 
position of Gihon. The first is, 2 Chron. xxxii. 30 : — " The same 
Hezekiah stopped the upper water-course of Gihon, and brought it 
straight down to the west side of the city of David." This statement 
requires that Gihon should be near the present Birket-Mamilla ; and 
this would be clearer were the words translated literally thus: — ■ 
" Hezekiah stopped up the going out of the waters of Gihon the 
Higher, and made them to come straight down,"]: &c. Were excava- 
tions made in this direction, it is likely that we should find Hezekiah's 
conduit for bringing the upper waters of Gihon into the city by the 
ivest, just as Solomon brought in the water from his pools by the 
south. Whether the sound of underground water, said to be heard 
near the Damascus gate, be real, or whether, if real, it indicates the 
course of the conduit, I cannot say.g But if a line be drawn from 
the Birket-Mamilla to the above gate, it would intersect the road 
leading down to the fuller's field (that is, the "highway of the fuller's 
field"), very near the place where the south-western angle of the wall 

* Antiquities, ix. 10, 4. For the earthquake referred to, see Amos i. 1 ; Zech- 
xiv. 4. 5. Josephus says, that the western part of Eroge broke off and rolled four 
furlongs to the eastern hill. Was it a fragment of the hill of Evil Counsel that 
was split off? See Blayney's Zechariah, where Eroge is translated cleft. See 
Adrichomius (p. 174), where it is given as " Mons Meridionalis ;" Reland's Pales- 
tina, vol. i. p. 339. 

t I do not here speak of the Jewish and New Testament use made of the valley 
of Hinnom, as the type and designation of hell. See Lightfoot's Preface to his 
Harmony of the Evangelists ; Wolfi Curse Philologicae, vol. i. p. 99. The spven 
Jewish names for Gehenna are given in Hackspan's Cabbala Judaica, p. 437; 
Bucheri Antiquitates Biblicse, p. 222. 

X The word stopped up, means often same as to hide (Psa. li. C; xl. 10), which 
may refer to the secret or underground conduit, which conveyed the upper waters 
straight down to the west of Sion. 

% See Saulcy, vol. ii- p. 250 ; Dr Robinson, iii. 197. 



490 



NOTES OX THE 



must have been, and where the conference must have taken place 
between Rabshakeh and the Jewish officers. It is said that the Assy- 
rian captains, " stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the 
highway of the fuller's field " (2 Kings xviii. 17) ; and it is said that 
Isaiah was to go forth to meet Ahaz, " at the end of the conduit of the 
upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field " (Isa. vii. 3). This 
conduit, then, was from the upper source of Gihon; so that the 
waters, instead of taking the deep curve which the course of the valley 
does, opposite the Jaffa gate, should come straight into the city. Fol- 
lowing their natural course, they were of little use to any part of the 
city but the south of Sion, which was already well supplied. It was 
of importance, then, to alter their course, and bring them down by a 
" short cut" to the west of Sion ; so that, being thus brought into the 
Tyropa^on, where the body of the people dwelt,* they might water the 
whole city. No doubt, this was in part devised as a precaution 
against invaders •, just as, in the case of the Crusaders in after ages, 
who were left without water in a similar manner by the Saracen pos- 
sessors of Jerusalem.! For Hezekiah took counsel to stop (conceal, as 
well as stop) the waters of the fountains which were without the city. 
So there was gathered much people together (implying the greatness 
of the work), who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran 
through the midst of the land " + (2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 4). But while 
Hezekiah's device was effectual against the enemy, it supplied his 
own city. 

In 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14, we have another statement which helps to fix 
the position of Gihon; "he (Maiiasseh) built a wall without the city 
of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering 
in at the fish-gate." The fish-gate is the Jaffa-gate, as Jerome tells 
us, and as we might naturally suppose ; and a wall which should be 
outside the city of David, at the west end of Gihon, in the valley, up 
to the fish-gate, indicates Gihon to have been just where it is now 
pointed out. 

The Jews say, that Gihon and Siloam were the same. And it is 
quite possible that the former was the beginning, and the latter the 
end of the water-course, which might thus be called either by the one 
name or the other, the two names denoting these peculiarities — Gihon, 
the breaking forth, Siloam, the reception of the water thus sent from 

" Inhabitants of the Valley." Jer. xxi. 13. is a name for Jerusalem. 

t Bohadin's Life of Saladin, p. 231; Benedicti Accolti, De bello Sacro, p. 193; 
William of Tyre, b. viii. p. 7. Purchas mentions their digging holes, putting the 
wet turf to their lips, and licking the dewy stone: vol. i. b. 8, chap. 1. 

I This last brook might be Gihon, or Kedron. or it might be Solomon's aque- 
duct. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



491 



Gihon. Taking its way down the Tyropoeon, between Zion and Akra, 
it would fulfil the description which has puzzled Lightfoot, it would 
be " in the midst of the city."* 

Somewhere at the upper extremity of Gihon must Millo have been, 
that peculiar outwork of Zion which David began (1 Chron. xi. 8), 
which Solomon completed (1 Kings ix. 15), and which Hezekiah re- 
paired (2 Chron. xxxii. 5). Perhaps about the place where theBir- 
ket Mamilla now is, Millo began, and this pool may have been that 
which supplied the fort with water, f It was of importance to com- 
mand the plain of Rephaim ; and a series of fortifications, whose 
foundations were formed by filling up (Millo) the bed of the Gihon, 
were commenced by David and carried downward by succeeding kings, 
which, while they commanded the plain, were closely connected with 
the city and castle of David. 

IV. Valley of Jehoshaphat. 

How this name originated, no one can tell us. But Jews, Moslems, 
and Christians, concur in the tradition There is strong probability 
that the lower part of this, including the whole of what I suppose to 
be Hinnom and the King's gardens, was " the King's dale" or valley 
mentioned in Genesis. Had it been called the valley of Melchizedek, 
the reason would have been obvious. % But there is no scriptural or 

* Centuria Chorographica, in Evang. Matt. p. 53. The Rabbies asked, where is 
the distance at which an unclean person must keep from the mountain of the tem- 
ple, to be measured from? From the wall or from the houses? Rabbi Samuel 
answers, "from Siloam," and the Talmudist adds, " Siloam was in the midst of 
the city." It passed through it under ground in most places by conduits, (except 
where its waters were detained by a pool, Isa. xxii. 11, a pond or pool, not a ditch), 
like a river, from whose banks distances might be accurately measured. 

t An Arabic scholar would perhaps smile were I to suggest, that in Mamilla we 
have the remains of Millo. It is true that Mamilla means " that which is like 
God ;" but a new name is often caught up from an expiring old one, with a differ- 
ent meaning and form, yet not the less suggested originally by the old word which 
has dropped away. The Survey of Egypt in 1422, mentions a small castle out of 
repair, *' at the distance ot a cannon-shot without the city toward the west," p. 138. 
Is this Millo, or one ot Herod's towers ? Felix Fabri brings Millo farther down, 
and makes it to be the semicircular spur of Zion on which Nebi David now stands. 
Evagatorium, vol. i. p. 27S. 

I Jerome calls it Coelas which Felix Fabri turns into Cele, (Evag. vol. 

i., p. 371). Jerome gives it as " inter Hierusalem et mortem Oliveti," and in his 
C mmentary on Joel, he tells us, that the Jews referred this prophecy of the scene 
in the valley of the Jehoshaphat, to the time when Jerusalem is to be restored, 
" sub mille annorum imperio," and that then the people are to be judged in the 
valley of Jehoshaphat, " quae ad orientalem partem templi sita est." Hence it was 
called •' Crinarius,'' the place of judgment, (Felix Fabri, ib.). Fabri takes the 
scene in the 14th of Zachariah literally, and somewhat minutely describes the 
cleaving of the Mount of Olivts, and the changes in the land, (vol. i. p. 393). 



492 



NOTES ON THE 



traditional narrative connecting Jehoshaphat with this valley at all. 
He was certainly not buried in the tomb which bears his name, for it 
is said that he was buried with his fathers in the city of David 
(2 Chron. xxi. 1), and how the Jews came to assign that tomb to him, 
is impossible to say.* The only allusion to the mime is in Joel iii. 
2, 12, where " the valley of Jehoshaphat" is mentioned as the seat of 
judgment ; and in the 14th verse, it is called " the valley of Decision." 
In the days of Cyrill (fifth century), it was placed some furlongs from 
Jerusalem toward the east, which would carry it to the eastern side of 
the Mount of Olives. Cyrill tells us that it was bare, and fitted for 
equestrian exercises, which does not at all agree with its present posi- 
tion, f I suppose that this valley w r as understood to extend over the 
whole length of the Kedron, so that while at its lowest part it was east 
of the city and close under it, at its north-western bend, it was some 
furlongs off, and offered a plain for horsemanship. + How it came to 
be regarded by Jews, Moslems, and Christians, as the place of the 
judgment, it is not easy to say.§ 

V. Ex-Kogel. 

There is not the slightest evidence that the Bir-Eyub is En-Rogel. 
The Bir Eyub seems originally to have been a pit or well ; possibly, 
according to Jewish tradition, the well out of which Nehemiah re- 
covered the sacred fire which the priests had hidden there. || This 
pit, Salah-ed-Din, son of Eyub, probably made a well, as it is this 
day. No tradition, early or late, gives it as En-llogel. This is a 
pit or well, En-Kogel was & fountain, and so not likely to be here. 

There is but one genuine fountain in or near Jerusalem, the Am- 
um-ed-Deraj, or fountain of the Virgin ; and this, I have little doubt, 
is the genuine En-Rogel. f The fact of this being the only fountain 

* Some of the early travellers called Absalom's tomb, Jehoshaphat's. 
t R eland's Palestine, vol. i. p 355. 

X " The valley of Jehoshaphat is three miles in length, reaching from the vale of 
Jehinnom to a place without the city, which they cali the Sepulchres of the Kings," 
Travels of two Englishmen, p. 107. 

§ Seethe Moslem description of the scene of judgment n Jalal Addin's History 
of the Temple, p. 150, 151. It is to be k * in the courts of the holy city/' the " great 
plain by the side of Mount Olivet, near the oratory of Omar, and known by the 
name of his appointed spot, the sleepless place-" 

1 The priests, it is said, hid the fire in this pit, while Jeremiah carried the 
vessels beyond Jordan to a cave on Mount Nebo, (1 Macc.ii. 4, 5). Wadi-en-Nar, 
the valley of fire, perhaps owes its name to this tradition. Eugene Roger calls Bir 
Eyub, " le-puy de Hieremie," (La Saincte Terre-, p. 133). 

T Rogel means foot, also fuller, hence it is supposed to be the fuller's fountain. 
Learned readers may smile when I suggest, that in the Arabic Deraj, we have the 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



493 



in the locality, and the other fact that Rogel is the only fountain 
mentioned in Scripture, is certainly a presumption. It is not likely 
that in the accurate language of Scripture that should he called a 
fountain, which is not so; and that on the other hand, there should 
be no mention made of that which is always so notable in the east, the 
existence of a real Ain, or fountain, under the walls of a city.* The 
" Well of the Virgin/' is so evidently an original spring, that it would 
be strange indeed were it the only fountain or pool unnamed in Scrip- 
ture. 

En-Kogel was the point where the border-line between Judah and 
Benjamin u came out." The " goings out were at En Rogel," (Josh, 
xv. 7, xviii. 16). Now as this line came up from Beih-hoglah (now 
Hajla), a little south of Jericho, it could not have come up the Wadi- 
en-N&r, as it must have done, if Bir-Eyub be En-Kogel. A glance 
at a good map will shew that this was, if not impossible, at least im- 
probable. The line came up by Adummim and Enshemesh, and 
though we do not knew the exact sites of these, we know that they 
were on the usual road between Jericho and Jerusalem. This brings 
it down, perhaps, by Bethany, between Olivet and the mountain of 
Corruption, right upon Um-ed-Deraj. 

Again, when David fled from Absalom, he went first to Bahurim 
(2 Sam. xvi. 5), meaning to cross Jordan at the fords. He took " the 
way of the wilderness " (/. e., the way leading to the wilderness, 2 
Sam. xv. 23), intending to "lodge for a night in the plains of the 
wilderness," and then to u pass over" (2 Sam. xvii. 16). He crosses, 
first of all, the Mount of Olives, as the direct road to the fords, and 
a little past the top of the hill (2 Sam. xvi. 1) ; he meets Ziba (a 
Benjamite) with the provisions, probably coming from Bahurim. 
At that place David refreshes himself, and then proceeds to Jordan 
(2 Sam. xvi. 14). Now as Bahurim belonged to Benjamin (as is evi- 
dent from its being inhabited by that powerful family of Benjamites, 
of which Shimei was the head, (2 Sam. xvi. 5), it could not be farther 
south than Enshemesh, or Adummum, or Beth-Hoglah, which were 
on the border-line. So that David w r as evidently taking the well- 
known road from Jerusalem to Jordan, along the border-line between 
the two tribes, and as he set out from Olivet, one would conclude that 

relic of Rogel. But the roots of both are precisely the same (see Gesenius), from 
the biliteral y\ rag. 

* Josephus' statement that it was at the King's garden, does not throw light 
upon the site, save that the gardens stretched up in this direction, and being 
watered by Siloam, which was supplied out of Dcraj, were more connected with 
the latter than with the tpot where the Eir-E\ub new is. 



494. 



KOTES OX THE 



the line was drawn from that mountain to Bethoglah. If so, it could 
not have come up Wady-en-Nar, nor even Wady-Debir, but must have 
kept farther north by Wady-el-Haud and Wady-Sidr, coming down at 
last upon the fountain of the Virgin. This comes cut more clearly 
from the subsequent narrative regarding the movements of Jonathan 
and Ahimaaz. They staid at En-Rogel (2 Sam. xvii. 17), a place 
where the women came to draw water, and where they would be in- 
visible from the city. This concealment could be admirably effected 
at the Virgin's fountain, but not at Bir-Eyub. They start from En- 
Rogel, over the hill, or at least over the Bethany-road, for Josephus 
tells us, that at two furlongs from the city, they were met by horse- 
men (so that they were likely upon the public road), and in 2 Sam. 
xvii. 18, we are informed that a lad saw them, perhaps just as they 
were ascending the steep road. Thus En-Rogel, Olivet, Bahurim, lay 
on the road to Jordan, and were all probably in a line with Beth- 
oglah and Adummam. It ought to be noticed, that the reason why the 
young men staid at En-Rogel (beside the concealment), was the near- 
ness of the fountain both to the city and to the Mount of Olives, over 
which David had gone. Bir-Eyub was far out of their way ; and had 
they started from it, they would have had a difficult and circuitous 
road indeed, up and down and across several hills and valleys, before 
they cauld reach David. It would be a work of some difficulty to 
reach Bahurim from Bir-Eyub, unless by doing the very thing which 
they wanted to avoid, coming up the valley and exposing themselves 
to the observation of the city. 

Another proof there is still in favour of Um-ed-Deraj. The unani- 
mous and unvarying tradition of the Jews is, that part of the' altar 
and temple was in Judah, and part in Benjamin. According to the 
usual course of the border-line, up Gihon, this was impossible : but if 
En-Rogel be where I think it is. and if Hinnom occupy the whole 
valley between Zion and the Mount of Olives, as I believe it does, 
then the run of the line would just divide Moriah, as I have already 
noticed when speaking of Hinnom. " The border went up by the 
valley of the son of Hinnom " (Josh. xv. 8) ; i. e., it went up the ridge 
of Ophel, above the fountain ; "to the south side of Jebusi or Jeru- 
salem not to the south of Zion, but to the south of the city, i. e., 
north of Zion.* '"It went to the top of the mountain that is before 

$ Josephus shews very clearly the distinction between the fort or Zion, and the 
city, w hich was Jebusi or Jerusalem, and was situated on Akra. " David took the 
lower city (built on Akra, see Jewish War, b. v. 4, 1); but the citadel remained " 
(Ant. b- vii. 3. 1). Jtbus> or Jebus was the name of the city, and Zion of the cita- 
del ; and ii was south of the city (not of Zion) that the line went. It may be well 



TOPOGEAHPY OF JERUSALEM. 



495 



the valley of Hinnom, westward," t. e. which is before* (or east of) the 
branch of Hinnom running westward (the mouth of the Tyropoeon). 
This mountain, continues the narrative, is " at the end of the valley of 
Rephaim, northwards ;" which must mean Akra, or rather Moriah and 
Akra, considered as one ridge, extending from Ophel, westward to 
the grotto of Jeremiah. The first part of the line was drawn from 
Eethoglah, along the Jericho road to Um-cd-Deraj. There were its 
goings out. The second part, where it took a bend, was from Um-ed- 
Deraj to beyond Jeremiah's grotto, in the northern extremity of Re- 
phaim. 

In the account of the martyrdom of James the Just (a.d. 64), we 
have some light cast upon the site of En-Rogel. He was taken to one 
of the towers on the temple wall and cast down into the valley be- 
low ; that is, into the valley of the Kedron. He was, however, only 
maimed, not killed, so that his enemies betook themselves to stoning. 
This not being speedy enough, one of the fullers, who was on the spot, 
took his club with which the clothes were beaten and slew him.f The 
place where the Martyr was cast down must have been the eastern 
wall; and as this is very near the "fuller's fountain " (En-Rogel), it 
accounts for the presence of a fuller with his club at the moment. If 
the fullers were at Bir-Eyub, they would have been far out of the way. 
If tradition has erred in ascribing the second of the four tombs, which 
lie so conspicuously at the foot of Olivet, X to James, it has, in this 
case at least, consulted history, and fixed upon a tomb just opposite 
the place where he was slain. But this is of no consequence. It is, 
however, of some importance to observe the implied proximity of the 
Fuller's Fountain to the eastern wall. 

Ecclesiastical tradition, in so far as it takes up this point, indicates 
that En-Rogel must have lain farther up than Bir-Eyub. For the 
" oak Roger' (though not the fountain) is often referred to by the old 

to keep in mind the difference between Akra, the citadel (Zion), and Akra. the 
hill. 

* I think the word before means east, as elsewhere ; but this is of no conse- 
quence to the above statement. 

t Eusebius simply says that he was killed with a club, a stick (£uXoy) ' but 
he gives an extract from Hegesippus, which not only tell us that it was a fuller's 
club; but that it was one of the fullers who used it in this way; (!/- TOJV yva- 
(£201!/), Euseb., b. ii. 23. See also Olshausen's Historic Ecclesiastics Monumenta 
praecipua, prefaced by Neander, p. 1-1. 

X The four tombs are (1 ) Zechariah'?. to the south, said to be called Kebur-Zujet- 
Faraun, the tomb of Pharaoh's wife. (2) Tomb of St James, said to be called 
Diwan-Faraun, Pharaoh's sofa or divan. (3) Absalom's, called Tantura Faraun, 
Pharoah's horn. (4) Jehoshaphat's, immediately behind that of Absalom's. Right 
above these, on the hill, perhaps 300 feet up, are the Kebur el-Anbia, the tombs 
of tlu Prophets, formerly noticed in our ascent of Olivet. 



496 



NOTES ON THE 



writers. This was the tree where Isaiah was said to be sawn asunder 
by Manasseh, and took its name from the fountain Rogel. This oak is 
placed in the valley of Jehoshaphat, not far from Siloam, two hundred 
paces up the Kedron from Nehemiah's well.* This traditional argu- 
ment, however, is of little weight. Yet it is evident that the oldest 
traditions have fixed the place of the prophet's death near the sub- 
terranean canal which they assert Hezekiah formed. 

There is thus no trace of evidence to shew that Bir-Eyub is En- 
Rogel. There are strong presumptions shewing that it is not. There 
are stronger presumptions still, shewing that the present fountain of 
the Virgin is the real old En-Rogel. | 

IV. The Tyropceon. 

I meant to have gone at some length into the question as to the 
site of this valley ; but it is too wide for a few pages ; and the right 
settlement of it is one of the most important things in constituting a 
true topography of Jerusalem. Its termination, ail are agreed, was 
at the pool of Siloam : but its commencement is disputed. That it 
began at the Jaffa gate seems to be impossible. + There is no appear- 
ance of a valley there at all, whereas at the Damascus gate there is. 
The depression at the latter gate strikes everyone, a depression which 
runs through the city, down to Siloam. Look from the walls of the 
city, look from Olivet, look from where you will, this depression is 
remarkable. Look at any of the models which have been made of 
the city, you observe the same thing. Even Dr Robinson admits 
this ; but he thinks it proves nothing. This depression is not what 
it once was, for it has been filled up with ages of rubbish. When we 
were in Jerusalem, the Austrians were about to build a Hospice, 

* Eugene Roger, p. 134. Laffi sets it eighteen paces from the Well of the Virgin, 
which he affirms to be the Dragon Well. Viaggio.p. 171, 172. " A stone's cast " 
from Siloe, is the distance given by the Spanish traveller, Antonio del Castillo. 
El Devoto Peregrino, p. 172. 

t I have said nothing as to the stone of Zoheleth, mentioned in connection 
with En-Rogel (1 Kings i. 9). It means the serpent's stone, and might be con- 
nected with the Dragon-well (Neh. ii. 13). It was in the King's Gardens accord- 
ing to Josephus. See Tanchum's Arabic Comment on Samuel and Kings, p. 64. 
He makes it the same with Eben-Ezel, the stone of Ezel, or "stone of the tra- 
vellers," or stone that shews the way, according to him but stone of Separation 
according to others, on account of the separation of David and Jonathan. It 
be would striking if it was at En-Rogel that David hid himself. But there is no 
proof of this. 

} Josephus describes Akra a.' oc/JbfilltVOTQg, not concave, as most of his tran- 
slators make it. but convex, as Stephen, in his Thesaurus ; shews it means. Begin- 
ning north ol the Damascus gate, it bulged out as it were, or took a sweep round, 
till it approached Zion at one part and Moriah at another. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



497 



a little way from the Damascus gate, just down what I conceive to be 
the valley of the Tyropceon. We saw the digging for the foundations, 
and there was an enormous amount of excavated rubbish which was 
carried out in baskets on the backs of a hundred donkeys. When we 
left, there was quite a hill rising outside the Damascus gate, where 
it was deposited. This depression was broad as well as deep, for 
a large part of the city was down here, and hence Jerusalem is 
called the "inhabitant of the valley" by Jeremiah. A glance at the 
locality, or at a model,* will shew that this valley was no mere ravine 
or gulley, but a spacious hollow, with Zion on the one side and Akra 
on the other, f The chief reason for making this valley begin at the 
Jaffa gate seems to be, the hypothesis that the present citadel is Hip- 
picus ; a point to the consideration of which we now pass. 

V. The Citadel. 

This great oblong tower has been, m former times, considered the 
representative of the ancient castle of David. | In crusading times it 
was known as the castle of the Pisans, and travellers subsequent to 
this age, retain this latter name. It is now called the Kalat, or Castle, 
or Citadel. Occupying the highest point of Mount Zion, it is the 
most elevated building in the city, and from its position, may well be 
the relic of David's tower, or rather of the Jebusite stronghold which 
David took. It would be impossible to demonstrate this ; but the 
probability is great Of late, however, it has been supposed to be the 

$r I 'would recommend the neat and very correct model of Jerusalem, lately pub- 
lished by Mr Green of Paternoster Row, 

t A countryman of Dr Robinson's, Mr Prime, takes a similar view to ourselves 
of the site of the Tyropceon and of Akra. (See Tent Life in the Holy Land, p. 
267-269). I would notice also that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been 
always considered as on Mount Zion, not on Akra, which shews that immemorial 
tradition has drawn the Tyropceon from the Damascus gate. William of Tyre 
thus writes, "the city is built on two mountains, which are divided by a mode- 
rately deep valley. Of these the western is called Zion, and the eastern Moriah (he 
includes Akra in Moriah). On the western mountain (Zion), but on the eastern 
declivity, is the Church of the Holy Resurrection." 

X I suppose it is to this that Rabbi Petachia refers when he says, *' the tower of 
David still exists," (Benisch's edition, p, 64). The tower of David is frequently 
mentioned by Jalal Addin, and by crusading- annalists. Felix Fabri describes the 
arx David, from the top of which he surveyed Jerusalem. His description corre- 
sponds with the modern citadel, (vol. i. 269)- All the old maps sufficiently shew 
that the modern citadel, the castle of the Pisans, and the tower of David, were 
considered the same. See map in Adrichomius, and two curious maps of ancient 
and modern Jerusalem in the old Italian folio of Bernardino (1620). Traltato 
delle Piante et imagini de sacri edificii, &c. 

I i 



498 



NOTES ON THE 



Hippicus built by Herod ; and as this point is of importance in set- 
tling the topography of Jerusalem, it is worth a little sifting ; not the 
less so because the decision of travellers and topographers in favour of 
this identity is nearly unanimous, and because, with the right adjust- 
ment of this point, the whole topography of Jerusalem is connected. 
It is to Josephus, of course, that we have to go back for the descrip- 
tion of the tower in Its original state ; and with this description the 
present castle is to be compared. 

(1.) As to its site. The tower Psephinus, right against which 
Titus encamped (two furlongs off), stood at the extreme north-west 
angle of the third or outermost wall, not, far from the present tombs 
of the Kings. * Hippicus was next, and against it the rest of the 
army encamped (also two furlongs off). Titus' reason for assailing 
these two towers, was because they were the keys of Bezetha, which 
lay entirely to the north of the city, and which, for obvious strategical 
reasons, he was desirous of taking nrst.f It is not easy to understand 
why, for the purpose of attacking Bezetha, he should plant his main 
force opposite a southern tower on Mount Sion, nearly a mile from 
that part of the city which he wished to force. To attack the city 
from that part which lies at the head of the valley of Gihon (where 
Hippicus is supposed to have been), would be to do the very thing 
which he had seen to be impracticable, and which he had determined 
not to do. Besides, where could he encamp, in order to attack this 
Hippicus? Not westward; for a large part of the city, even at 
present, runs out in that direction, and must have done so much 
farther formerly. He must have placed his troops south, or south- 
west of the wall ; that is to say, on the present Bethlehem road, 
extending backwards upon the plain of Rephaim, with the valley of 
Gihon, between them and the city. No general would surely attack 
a city at its very strongest point ; nay, select as the point of at- 
tack a tower overhanging a valley. Titus' object was to take ad- 
vantage of the level ground on the north-west, there to erect his 
towers, and to push them forward against the towers of the city 
at a point where there was no valley to give the besieged an ad- 
vantage ; whereas, if Hippicus be identical with the " castle of David," 
he must have reversed his policy. He must have raised his towers 

¥r Josephus, Jewish "War, v. 3, 5- " Titus himself encamped about two furlongs 
from the wall, at the corner-part of it {xatOL TO ywtOJO'J f&'sgog), opposite 
(uvri/CPi ), the tower called Psephinus, where the circumference of the northern 
wall bends to the west." 

t Titus took up his position along the north-west wall, judging it impracticable 
to force the city in any other direction ; M B.irtlett's Works, p. 41. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



in a spot where, by reason of the intervening valley, they would 
be useless. Only ocular inspection of the present tower and the 
adjacent ground can give the reader a right idea of the position of 
matters. But this may be added by way. of illustration, that, as 
no general among the many who have besieged Edinburgh castle, 
in the past days of Scottish story, would have thought of planting his 
army where the present New Town stands, with the "North Loch" 
between him and its frowning towers, so no ancient king or captain, 
either Sennacherib or Titus, ever thought of assailing Jerusalem by 
planting his army opposite Mount Sion, with Hinnom or Gihon be- 
tween. Though Mr Bartlett is one of the supporters of the identity 
which we are questioning, yet his own map of Jerusalem is quite suf- 
ficient to shew the truth of the above remarks.* 

Again, when speaking of the old wall, Josephus tells us that Hip- 
picus was situated at its north extremity. " That wall beginning at 
the north, t from the tower called Hippicus, and stretching to the 
place called Xystus, and joining to the Council House, finished at the 
western porch of the temple." It is not easy to imagine any topo- 
graphy of ancient Jerusalem in which Mount Sion shall be north of 
the city, and the " Castle of David" the northern commencement of 
the city wall. Had Josephus been a writer of the age of David, when 
the city had not spread far to the north, or had he been speaking of 
Sion only, he might have said that the present castle lay to the north, 
or, at least, the north-west of the city ; but writing, as he did, after 
the city had developed itself fully to the north and west, he could not 
have said that Hippicus was towards the north of Jerusalem, if it were 
at the head of the valley of Gihon, as the present castle is. 

Farther, Josephus speaks of Hippicus as being, in a certain sense, 
adjacent to Psephinus ; at least, his description implies that they 
were so situated with regard to each other, that there was no tower 
between, and that so by securing both or either, he might enter 
Bezetha and attack the second wall. " Hippicus was opposite this."J 
And, farther, he mentions that there were two other towers adjoining.g 

Walks, p. 54. See also his beautiful, though incorrect, View of Jerusalem, at 
the beginning of his volume. In looking at the position of his towers, one feels 
inclined to ask, Of what use were they ? They look well in the picture; but towers 
in the centre of a city will make poor defences. 

t ZOCTa (Boooav, Jewish War. v. 4, 2. 

t civr/'/lovc,, Jewish War, v. 4, 3. 

% MsysOog rs %ai xoXhog r^av zcci o^vgorrircc rwv %ara ryjv ot- 
'/-GUu'svrjV hiaCpooQl, ib. ib. These expressions apply to the whole of the towers. 

nut U> the two alone. 



500 



NOTES ON THE 



These could not be between Psephinus and Hippieus, but must be 
on the other side (£. e. the south or east) of the latter. Yet it is not 
easy to find room for such towers on the south or east of the modern 
citadel; and even though room were found for them, of what use 
could they be, so far within the city? If these towers extended 
along the range of the western or northern wall, they were truly 
defences ; if placed anywhere else, they were useless. 

(2.) As to the construction of Hippieus. Josephus tells us that it 
was solid within, up to the height of " thirty cubits," or upwards of 
fifty feet. Now the present tower is not solid, nor does it bear 
marks of having been so, which it would certainly have done had it 
been the tower which Josephus describes. This is the more remark- 
able, because, as Dr Robinson and others have remarked, the lower 
part of the present structure, in height forty feet, is the ancient tower 
itself, just as it was built, f How a solid tower could be hollowed out 
for more than forty feet, and converted into its present condition with- 
out disturbing the original stones, or leaving in any part, either out- 
side or inside, one trace of its transformation, is a puzzle which no 
one has tried to solve. 

(3.) As to its size. Here we have very explicit testimony. Jose- 
phus, after telling us that Psephinus was an octagon, mentions that 
Hippieus was a tetragon, or square ; and, lest it might be supposed 
that he merely meant a four-sided building, not a mathematical 
square, he adds, that its breadth and length were each twenty-five 
cubits,+ or somewhere above forty-three feet. Now, as this gives by 
no means a large tower, Josephus cannot be charged with exaggera- 
tion here. What, then, are the measurements of the present castle? 
First of all, it is not a square, the southern side exceeding the eastern 
by about fourteen feet. Next, the sides are respectively fifty-six feet 
and seventy feet, instead of Josephus' forty-three feet. 

(4.) As to the stones themselves. Josephus is very particular as to 
the size of these. He does not, indeed, single out Hippieus; but he 
is quite explicit as to the stones of the three towers, Hippieus, Phasae- 

The first says, 6'jdotftQV bldxzvcc, and again he speaks of its TO fl"X?Jg£S, 
Jewish War, v. 4, 3. 

t " The large stones of which this part is built, have evidently never been dis- 
turbed. They have neither been thrown down nor relaid: and the general im- 
pression which they make upon the beholder is precisely like that of the remains 
of the ancient walls around the temple;" Robinson, vol. i. 308. 

I svgcg be xai {Jbr/xog hxotfi %ai mwi Triyfiv sxaffrog, Jewish War 
v. 4,8. 



TOPOGKATHY OF JERUSALEM. 



501 



lus, and Mariarane, which stood not far from each other.* He tells 
us that these stones were twenty cubits, or above thirty feet, in length, 
ten cubits, or above fifteen feet, in breadth, and five cubits, or above 
eight feet, in depth. Now, let allowance be made for exaggeration, if 
it ii thought needful, and let it be granted that Josephus was only 
speaking of the largest stones, yet these stones are nearly three times 
the size of those now seen in the castle at the Jaffa gate, t 

How, with all this before him, Dr Eobinson could say that the pre- 
sent tower " tallied well enough with the description of Hippicus " 
(vol. i. p. 309), I do not understand. It seems to me that there is not 
one point in ivhich modern topographers do not here contradict Jose- 
phus, and this without attempting either to justify their disbelief of 
his statements, or to account for the difficulties of the case.* 

That the present citadel is Hippicus has certainly not been proved. 
There is no tradition to the effect, Jewish, Christian, or Moslem. 
There is no resemblance between the rough building now existing, 
and the finely jointed tower of Herod. A square tower, and an oblong 
one, a solid tower, and a hollow one ; a tower seventy feet in breadth, 
and a tower forty feet in breadth, a tower at the north of a city, and a 
tower at the south, these surely are very different things. The proof 
against the identity of these two buildings, amounts as nearly to demon- 
stration as any such historical question can admit of.§ 

VIII. Tombs or the Kings. 

De Saulcy's attempt to prove these to be the tombs of David, Solo- 
mon, &c, referred to so often in Scripture, is an utter failure. The 

-H- srac OO'JTOV duo, says the historian, speaking of Hippicus; Jewish War, v. 4, 

3 

t " One of these stones measured 91 feet long, 4| broad, and 3 feet 10 inches 
hiy;h; another, 10 feet 2 inches long, 4 feet 1 inch high; a third, 12| feet long. 3 feet 
5 inches broad ;" Robinson, vol. i. p. 303. 

I " All these circumstances, compared with the account of Josephus, and taking 
into view the conjectural and exaggerated nature of his statements, tally well 
enough with the description of Hippicus; while the position of the tower, and the 
apparent solidity of the antique part, leave little room to doubt of its identity ;* 
Robinson, vol. i. p 309. I remark (1.), there is nothing conjectural about Jose- 
phus' statements. They are evidently made upon thorough knowledge. (2.) He 
certainly does not exagerate here, else he would not have given twenty-five cubits 
a side for this tower. (3.) There is no apparent solidity in the tower, except the 
thick walls. Josephus writes so carefully and minutely about Jerusalem, that he 
must have had before him a plan of the city, with all its measurements; beside--, 
he knew the city well, -every tower, stone, and hollow. 

§ Mr Prime has recorded his opinion of some of Dr Robinson's statements on 
the topography of the city, at p. 297, 298 of his " Tent Life." He speaks rather 
severely. 



502 



NOTES ON THE 



oft-recurring expression " buried with his fathers in the city of David" 
is far too explicit to refer to tombs, which at the time when the sacred 
historians used it, were a long way outside the walls of Jerusalem, if, 
indeed, they then existed at all. The "city of David" has in sacred 
history but one meaning,— the city on Mount Sion, — which got the 
name of David's city, when that king wrested its castle from the Jebu- 
sitcs. But even though the term could be shewn to include allJerusalem, 
it certainly did not include places half a mile or a mile outside its 
walls. The Mount of Olives might be more truly said to be " in the 
city of David" than a spot to which its walls did not nearly reach till 
the last days of Jerusalem. Even though his fanciful calculations as 
to the number of niches were correct, there would be only a curious 
coincidence, which, though it might be a presumption, could be no 
proof, especially when all legitimate topography founded on history, 
is entirely in the face of his hypothesis. 

That they are the monuments of Helena, queen of Adiabene, men- 
tioned by Josephus, is a mere conjecture — a conjecture inconsistent 
with the statements cf Josephus. That historian frequently refers to 
the tombs of Helena and those of the kings ; but always as at separate 
places, at some distance from each other. If Josephus be correct, there 
were two well-known objects or places on the north side of the eity. The 
one was " the monuments of Helena, queen of Adiabene and mother 
of King Izates." The other was " the royal caverns." How far dis- 
tant they were from each other, he does not say ; but one might con- 
jecture from his narrative, that the former lay considerably farther 
from the city than the other, for he mentions that the Jews sallying 
out at one of the towers in that direction, drove back the Romans, and 
pursued them as far as the monuments of Queen Helena.* The pre- 
sent *'tombs of the Kings" could nor have been a stone-cast from the 
wall; nay, many suppose that they were within it. It could not have 
been to them that the Jews chased the Romans. The most careless 
reader of Josephus could not suppose this. The sortie from the 
towers, the fight before the walls, the retreat of the Romans, and the 
pursuit of the Jews, indicate a very considerable space between the 
wall and the tomb of Helena, such a space as could not have existed 
between the wall and the present tombs of the Kings. 

The statement of Josephus as to the course of the third wall, shews 

* The old travellers mention two separate places as existing in their day. The 
tomb of Helena which was a monument above ground, and that of the kings which 
they call spelunca, as being underground. 

t Jewish War 5, 3, 3. He mentions elsewhere that Helena's monuments were 
three stadia from the city. Antiq. 20, 4, 3. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



503 



the same thing. He speaks of it thus : " It extended opposite to the 
monuments of Helena, and stretching through the royal caves, it bent 
again at the tower of the corner, along by the monument called the 
Fuller's, and joined on to the old wall at the valley of the Kedron."* 
This statement shews the distance between the tombs of Helena and 
the royal caves. It also gives great probability to the hypothesis, 
that the present tombs of the Kings are the " royal caves" of Josephus ; 
and if so, it completely subverts the opinion, that the present tombs 
are to be identified with the monuments of Helena. If these tombs are 
not what their name imports, it is difficult to say what they are. We 
can only say this, that if Josephus be correct, they cannot be the tomb 
of Helena, whatever else they may be found to be. The ridiculous 
fable of Pausanias about her monument can establish nothing, and 
one wonders that Dr Robinson should have cited it as proof of any- 
thing. Jerome's statement as to the journey of Paula, and her seeing 
the tomb of Helena on her left, is too vague to settle the point. One 
is surprised to see the stress which Dr Robinson lays upon the road 
passing westward of the tomb. We ourselves sometimes took the east 
and sometimes the west, in spite of Dr Robinson's statement, that 
" the very nature of the ground does not admit of any material varia- 
tion," (vol. i. p. 362). Paula might easily pass either to the right or 
left of the tombs of the Kings, as she might be inclined. Josephus' 
narrative is most explicit, and agrees admirably with the present posi- 
tion of the tombs of the Kings. So that there seems no reason why 
we should not accept the native tradition, and believe that these ex- 
cavations really are the Kebur es-Selathin, or Kebur el-Moluk, the 
tombs of the Kings. To reject native tradition, when in the teeth of 
authentic history, is proper; but to reject it when it entirely agrees 
with history, and to substitute for it a conjecture at variance both 
with history and tradition, is unreasonable and mischievous. 

What kings then were buried here ? This is a more difficult ques- 
tion. They were- not the kings of Judah, as De Saulcy so fancifully 
maintains. Their burying-place was in the city of David, and there 
is no more reason against our accepting the present Kebur Nebi David, 

J. W. 5, 4, 2. Josephus is evidently very particular in his statement. He 
speaks of "the monument (/XVTJ/xa) of the fuller," of "the monuments (r&V 
aVTi t USIb)v) of Helena/' and of " the royal caves" tfcr^Xa/OlV f3(Z(fl'hl%0JV ; as if 
the fuller's tomb was a pillar or single erection like Absalom's pillar, Helena's 
tomb a more extensive structure, and the royal tombs as excavations. We notice 
also that he says, that the wall passed " opposite" (aV77%gu) Helena's monu- 
ments, it went "along by*' (xarct) the fuller's monument, but it stretched 
"through" (£/a) the royal caves. 





504 



NOTES OX THE 



on Sion, as the authentic sepulchre, than there is against our accept- 
ing the mosque of Hebron as the cave of Machpelah. But there were 
several kings of that line who were not buried in the sepulchres, but 
in tombs of their own. Joash was buried in a garden-tomb, not in the 
sepulchre of David (2 Chron. xxiv. 25 ), so was Manasseh (2 Kings xxi. 
18), so was Amon (2 Kings xxi. 26). But there is no proof that the 
Kebur el-Moluk is their sepulchre. Then there were the kings of the 
Asmonaean dynasty ; then the kings of the line of Herod. They 
might be buried here. But though we cannot say explicitly who of 
all these occupy these curious vaults, we know that Josephus tells us, 
that at this spot facie were rojal sepulchres in his days, which must 
have been for some of these. We are sure also, that they were meant 
not for one person but for many, there being some eighteen or twenty 
niches for the reception of coffins. Queen Helena might be ambitious 
perhaps, but one can hardly conceive of ambition or vanity refusing to 
be satisfied with less than twenty niches ! A native king might hew 
out more tombs than he himself needed, because he wished to provide 
for his successors ; but a foreign princess having no connection with 
the land, and whose posterity were not likely to visit it, would hardly 
have been guilty of such folly as to excavate twenty tombs for herself ! 

VII. The Place of the Crucifixion. 

It will be of some service to gather together the brief and few 
allusions to Golgotha in Scripture. Some light may be cast on the 
topography of the neighbourhood, which may help us at least in de- 
ciding where it was not. Let it be kept in mind that Golgotha is its 
true name, not Calvary. This last word is a Latin translation of the 
Hebrew or Greek, and is unknown in Scripture. Let it also be kept 
in mind that the term mount is nowhere applied to it in Scripture, nor 
in the early ages, nor indeed till within these few hundred years. The 
" rock of Calvary" we often meet with in the fathers, and in the old 
hymns, but not " mount." It was not likely that any place of execu- 
tion would be on a mount : nor is it likely that had it been a mount 
it would simply have been called by the Evangelists " a place." 

1. It was without the city. Matt, xxvii. 32, " As they were coming 
out" that is, out of the city, for the previous verse mentions their 
quitting the judgment-hall. Mark xv. 20, "they led him out" that 
is, out of the city. John xix, 17, " he, bearing his cross, went forth, 
unto a place called the place^f a skull." Just as it is said of Stephen, 
4i they cast him out of the city," (Acts vii. 5S), so it is written of the 
Lord, " they led him out." He was thus " brought as a lamb to the 
slaughter," (Isa. liii. 7 ; Acts viii. 32) : or as Jeremiah writes, when the 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



505 



men of Anathoth sought his life, {; he was like a lamb or an ox that 
is brought to the slaughter,"* (xi. 19). The fact also that " a great 
company (sroXi) ftXrjfog) of people" followed him, would imply that 
he was outside the streets of Jerusalem. 

2. It was not far from the city. John xix. 20, " The place where 
Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city." The word here used does 
not infer juxta-position by any means, but, may allow of a consider- 
able interval, as in the case of the Mount of Olivet, which is said to 
be u nigh to Jerusalem, a Sabbath-day's journey," (Acts i. 12. See 
the Greek). f From the fact of the cross having been taken from 
Jesus and transferred to Simon, it would seem as if the distance was 
at least sufficient to exhaust the strength of the sufferer. It was not 
till they had got beyond the city that this transference took place 
(Matt, xxvii. 32) ; so that there must have been some distance to tra- 
verse beyond the walls, else there would have been no need of such 
relief. Had Golgotha been immediately outside the gate, the bearing 
of the cross would then have been finished. The same inference might 
be drawn from the expression used respecting the Koman guards, 
Matt, xxviii. 11, "some of the watch came into the city," words which 
could hardly have been employed had Golgotha been just outside the 
gate, and not at some short distance from it. Each part of the narra- 
tive, each scene brought before us, of crucifixion, burial, and resur- 
rection, the running to and fro of disciples and women, all give the 
impression that there must have been some little distance between the 
city and Golgotha. This is the more likely to be the case if the place 
of crucifixion were the statutory place of criminal execution. If so, 
there would be a difficulty of finding room for it, as some have tried to 
do, on the south or east of the city, as its walls overhung the valleys of 
Hinnom and Jehoshaphat. At present there would be space, but the 
line of wall has considerably retreated since the days of Herod. What 
might be now could not have been then. But no stress can be laid 
upon the supposition that it was the usual place for the execution of 
malefactors, as this is quite uncertain, as we shall see. Whether it 
were the usual place or not, however, it was the place fixed upon at 
this time, and, therefore, all that could be inferred from its being the 
usual place, may be inferred from its being the occasional place, as 
it was at the time spoken of. 

3. There was room for three things, a garden, a tomb, and a place 

* It might be that the Sheep-gate took its name from the animals brought in by 
it for sacrifice. If so, greater point is given to these passages, 
t In both of these places the word is lyy\)^. 



506 



NOTES ON THE 



of execution. Joseph of Arimathen had here both a garden and a 
tomb ; nor would a rich man, such as he was, be content with a small 
patch of ground. In all likelihood there was a spacious garden, and 
an ample as well as a well-hewn sepulchre. It does strike one as in- 
congruous that Joseph should have chosen the place of public execu- 
tion as his garden and burying-place, more especially as these do not 
seem to have been inclosed with any wall or fence ; for the way in 
which the disciples and others came and went, implies that there was 
no inclosure. And this is a strong reason for supposing that, after all, 
Golgotha may not have been the usual spot of execution, but may 
have taken its name from its resemblance to a skull, or from some 
event connected with a skull having taken place there, more likely 
the former. It is not called the place of skulls, but the place of a 
skull ; and hence seems to have arisen the patristic tradition of Adam 
having been buried there. If it were a place of execution, or of bones 
and skulls, it would be accounted "unclean," for "whosoever touched 
a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave/' was accounted "un- 
clean," (Numb. xix. 16, 18). Now the red heifer without spot, 
wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke," was a spe- 
cial type of the great sacrifice. This heifer was to be slain " without 
the camp" (Numb. xix. 3), and burned to ashes there. Then its 
ashes were to be collected and deposited without ths camp, by a 
"clean" person, in a " clean place," (Numb. xix. 9). And thus, 
though it was by "wicked hands" that Christ had been crucified and 
slain (Acts ii. 23), yet it was by the hands of a disciple that he was 
taken down from the cross and laid in the " clean place," the " new 
sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid," (John xix. 41). I can 
hardly bring myself to believe that the anti-type was made so to differ 
from the type, as that while such pains were taken to secure a clean 
place for the one, the un cleanest place round Jerusalem should be 
chosen for the other. Nor is it likely that a rich man like Joseph 
would have chosen such a neighbourhood either for his garden or his 
tomb. 

4. It must have been beyond the suburbs of the city. There was a cer- 
tain legal distance to which the suburbs of a city were to extend. This 
is expressly defined in the case of the Levitical cities, and we may 
conclude that such was the way of reckoning in other cases. First a 
thousand cubits were to be measured from the walls of the city (Num. 
xxxv. 4), "for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their 
beasts." From this circle an outer one was to be measured off, at a 
distance of two thousand cubits, which was to be " the field of the 
suburbs " (Lev. xxv. 34), occupied probably with gardens and or- 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



507 



chards, and plantations of various kinds. Adding these two together we 
find that the suburbs of a city extended a mile beyond its walls, or I 
should say that " the city" itself was reckoned to extend a mile be- 
yond itself; and the manslayer only needed to set foot within this 
outer circle, and he was safe. He did not need to enter the gates, 
(Num. xxxv. 26). It is remarkable that the Jews were not allowed 
to bury their dead within this circle. Their burying-places, the Rab- 
bles tell us, were required to be beyond it. And though all this spe- 
cially refers to the forty-eight Levitical cities, yet it is not unlikely that 
th% rule was to a certain extent applied to all. If so, then the likeli- 
hood is, that Golgotha as a burying-place, or a place of execution, 
would be at least 3000 cubits from the walls of the city. Nor would 
the great sin-offering be reckoned as properly burned without the 
camp, unless carried to some such distance without the city.* 

5. It must have been near some thoroughfare. Matt, xxvii. 39, " they 
that passed by reviled him." Here passers by are a different class 
from " the chief priests, and scribes, and elders " (verse 41), who were 
standing there to gaze; for in another Evangelist we read, "The 
people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them, derided him," 
(Luke xxiii. 35) ; and in another 11 there stood by the cross of Jesus 
his mother and his mother's sister," (John xix. 25). The "passers 
by" of Matthew and Mark are evidently those coming and going on 
a public thoroughfare. They are not the multitude from the city, 
but those who were travelling on a road which must have lain very 
near the scene of crucifixion. The great highways of Jerusalem must 
have chiefly been on the west and north of the city. On the Gihon 
or south side, there could have been no thoroughfare ; and even on 
theKedron, or east side, it is not likely that there was one ; for though 
the present road to Anata or Anathoth runs in that direction, between 
the wall and the valley, yet it may be doubted whether it could have 
done so formerly, when the battlements overhung the ravine. 

It lay near a place of gardens, and yet it is not likely that it was 
amongst these. It is probable that Joseph's garden was one of many 
in some particular part of the country outside the walls; for we find 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem forming gardens for themselves in the 
suburbs. This could hardly be in what is eallcd Hinnom, as that 
was occupied by the king's gardens ; and besides, the excavated tombs 
(Akeldama) are in the upper part of the southern slopes, where there 

* No body \va« allowed to be buried within fifty cubits of a city. (See Lightfoot, 
Cent. Chorgr. on Matt. p. 173) It will not be easy for the advocates of the genu- 
ineness of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to shew that it could ever have been 
so far from the city walls. 



508 KOTSS ON THE 

is no room for gardens. The garden and the tomb, and the place of 
execution, were together. But it is only the bottom of Hinnom that 
would do for a garden, and the height for a tomb. The place of exe- 
tion and the garden might adjoin, or the place of execution and the 
tomb might adjoin, but the whole three could not be at one spot in 
that locality. The three might perhaps be brought together in the 
Kedron valley, if we suppose Joseph's garden to adjoin Gethsemane; 
but there are other considerations that render this spot not a likely 
one as the place of execution. Besides the gardens of the city were 
all in another direction, extending north-westwards, but more north- 
wards, as the gate Gennath, the gate of the gardens, shews.* 

6. It is likely to have been in the direction of the fields ; probably 
those parts to the north-west which are called " the fields of Kedron," 
(2 Kings xxiii. 4). For we read that the executioners on going out of 
the city, met Simon the Cyrenian u coming from the country/' literally 
"from the field,'' ayoou), and laid the cross on him. This, how- 
ever, is presumption rather than a proof. It is at the same time worth 
noticing that this north part of the suburbs is that which is referred to, 
not only in the passage above cited, but in Jer. xxxi. 39, 40, as marked 
by its "fields." The different parts of the curve given in that passage 
are these,— (1 ) Gareb ; (2.) Goath ; (3.) the valley of the dead bodies 
and ashes; (4.) the fields; (5.) the brook Kidron. Gareb, Goath, &c, 
are the places to which one would turn in looking for Golgotha ; and 
it is not quite unimportant to notice that Simon was coming from 
the country or field, probably the very locality referred to by the 
prophet. 

7. It is likely to have been on the north side of the city. Christ 
suffered without the gate, and of this those offerings were the type, 
which were offered without the camp. If then the type was so exactly 
fulfilled in this particular, we have reason to believe that it was also 
fulfilled in regard to the direction in which this was done. Now the 
burnt-sacrifice of the sheep and goats was to be killed u on the side of 
the altar, northward" (Lev. i. 11) ; so we may conclude that when 
Christ was led without the gate, " as a lamb to the slaughter," he was 
led in this direction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Again, the 
sin-offering was to be killed in the same place (Lev. vi. 25) ; that is, 
northward. Again the trespass-offering was to be killed in the same 
place with the burnt-offering and the sin-offering (Lev. vii. 2) ; that is 

* This gate, taking its name from adjoining girdens, could not have been near 
the present Citadel or Castle of David, as no gardens could have been there; an- 
other of the many proofs that this is not Hippicus. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 



northward. Thus the place where these three great offerings were to 
be killed is carefully specified. It was the nortli* that was chosen by 
God, as the place where the life was to be taken ; and we may, with- 
out straining, conclude that it was the north that was to be the scene 
of the great sacrifice, — the sacrifice of the Just for the unjust, — the 
offering of the Lamb of God. 

If this be the case, then we arc to look for Golgotha to the north of 
the city. The builders of the Church of the Sepulchre have taken the 
right side of the city for the tomb ; but they have not gone far enough 
out. Possibly their church may, after all, indicate so far the true 
quarter. They may have got hold of the old tradition, but, driven by 
convenience and danger from the very spot itself, they took the nearest 
to it that they could get within the shelter of the city. Pladrian, we 
know, covered the whole place with earth, and built on it temples to 
Venus; and it is not likely that they would be able to recognise the 
real spot again. But they may have kept the right direction. The 
fable of the miraculous cross-finding is the chief thing that makes us 
doubt as to their following any tradition whatsoever, or being pos- 
sessed of any information on the matter. It is implied that they got 
all their knowledge of the locality by a direct revelation, with the 
superfluous addition of miracles, in confirmation. "VVe should have 
paid some respect to a genuine tradition of that day; we cannot do 
the same for a miracle got up for the occasion. f 

I have not cited Jeremiah xxxi. 39, where Goath is mentioned. It 
is somewhat uncertain whether this is realiy the root of Golgotha. It 
may, however, be so ; and I suppose most commentators regard it as 
such. If it be, there is a very decided confirmation of the remarks 

* It was from the nortli that all Israel's great judgments came (Jer. i. 12, 14). It 
was on the north that Assyria, and Babylon, and Rome sat down against Jerusa- 
lem. It was to the north that Josiah carried out the vessels of Baal to destroy 
them (2 Kings xxiii. 4). Rablsi Solomon commenting on Jer. xxxi. 40, thus writes 
concerning these north parts of the city t— ''The valley of dead bodies is the 
valley where the carcases of the camp of Sennacherib fell (which we know from 
Josephus was north, J. W. v. 7, 3) ; and the valley of the ashes is the place whither 
they carried the ashes forth, which was without Jerusalem," Lightfoot, Temple, 
p. 11. This passage is a presumption in favour of the mounds of ashes being 
temple ashes. • Yet the Rabbi does not say these were temple ashes, which other 
passages lead us to suppose were cast into the Kedron, They might be the ashes 
of the city. 

t In Kitto's Cyclopaedia, Art. Cross, these miracles are given as history ! The 
miracle as to the wood and nails did not die with the originators. The wood mul- 
tiplied to such an extent that the whole Christian world got pieces of it. Erasmus 
says that a ship of burden (na\is oneraria) would be required to carry them : and 
Swift speaks of Lord Peter's " old sign-post which had nails and timber enough in 
it to build sixteen la»-g^ nu n of war. 



510 NOTES ON THE 

already made, as may be gathered from a previous note as to Gareb 
and Goath. 

VIII. MlZPEH. 

It lias occurred to me that the village of Shaphat, on the north 
side of Scopus, may represent the ancient Mizpeh. As to the name 
Shaphat, and its origin, nothing has been hitherto suggested Dr 
Robinson merely mentions the name and the ruins. It is a short 
mile north from the brow of Scopus, about half way between that hill 
and Tuleil el-Ful, the Gibeah of Saul. The level on which it stands is 
not very much lower than Scopus, for though there is a descent the 
whole way, it is not so perceptible till after you pass Shaphat. 

It does not seem unlikely that Shaphat is the representative of the 
ancient Mizpeh. We know that Yizpeh means watch-tower, and the 
Hebrew root has assumed a variety of forms. In Judges i. 17, a town 
is called Zephath, which both Septuagint and Vulgate give as Sephath ; 
so that the modern name Shaphat is almost identical with Mizpeh or 
Sephath. But as this place is not the Mizpeh of Samuel, let us turn 
to those passages where it is mentioned, In Judges xx. 1, Mizpeh 
is given by the Septuagint as Massepha, and in 1 Sam. vii. 5, as 
Massephath. This comes very near the modern name. In 1 Mace, 
iii. 46, we read that the Israelites were gathered togethei*, and came 
to Massepha, which is over against Jerusalem, for Massepha was for- 
merly the place of prayer to Israel." The various forms of the ancient 
name of Mizpeh correspond very closely to the modern one of Shaphat. 

This position of Mizpeh quite suits the. historical notices given of it 
in Scripture. Here Israel could be easily assembled, as we know they 
often were by Samuel : here Asa could easily transport the stones from 
JRamah to fortify it; here the seat of government might most con- 
veniently be fixed after the Captivity ; and here the Jews might re- 
sort for fasting and prayer, when driven out of Jerusalem. The refer- 
ence to this last fact by the Jewish historian is worth noticing. The 
circumstances are full of interest, and the scene took place about 166 be- 
fore Christ. We get first a glimpse of Jerusalem, lying desolate, much 
as Jeremiah had described her. " Now Jerusalem was uninhabited 
as a desert; none of her children went in or came out ; the sanctuary 
also was trodden down, and the sons of the strangers were in the 
citadel ; it was a lodging (xardX'j'jbci) to the heathen ; and joy was 
taken from Jacob, and the pipe, with the harp, ceased. And they 
(Judas Maccabaeus and his brethren) were gathered together and came 
to Massepha, over against Jerusalem, for in Massepha was for- 

merly the place of prayer for Israel. Then they fasted that day and 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 511 

clothed themselves with sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads, and 
rent their clothes, and unfolded the book of the law concerning which 
the Gentiles had made search, to paint the likeness of their idols. 
They brought also the garments of the priesthood, and the first-fruits, 
and the tithes, and they set up the Nazarites who had fulfilled their 
days; and they cried loudly to heaven, saying, What shall we do 
with these, and whither shall we carry them away; for thy holy 
things have been trodden down and profaned, and thy priests are in 
sorrow and heaviness, .... then they sounded with the trumpets, 
and cried with a mighty voice," (1 Mace. iii. 45-54.)* 

Dr Robinson places Mizpeh at the present Nebi-Samwil. But the 
mere fact of the hill of Nebi-Samwil forming a good site for a watch- 
tower, and being within sight of Jerusalem, is not enough. The 
notices regarding Mizpeh, especially in Jeremiah, are such as to indi- 
cate a place very near Jerusalem ; still more does the narrative, which 
has just been cited from the Book of the Maccabees, intimate this , 
and the expression, u over against Jerusalem " (xarhavri), is hardly 
one that would have been used regarding a hill so far off as Nebi- 
Samwil, but just such a one as would apply either to the Mount of 
Olives on the immediate north, or to its adjoining ridge, on the slope 
of which the modern Shaphat stands. But there is a passage in 
Jeremiah which quite sets aside Nebi-Samwil, and greatly confirms 
the other. It is in chap. xli. 5 : — " There came (to Mizpeh) certain 
from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, fourscore men, having 
their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, 
with offerings and incense in their hands, to bring them to the house 
of the Lord." These eighty men were on their way to Jerusalem from 
three well-known cities in the north, to present gifts to the Lord. 
Whether they knew that the temple had been burnt, and were going 

v Into the question as to the exact reference of this passage, or to the meaning 
of the passage itself, I do not enter. Probably the Gentiles had tried to tamper 
with the sacred rolls of the Jews, and to defile them by pictures of their gods. 
This the Jews revolted from as much as from the erection of statues in the temple. 
To this last we find Agrippa adverting in the letter of his to Caius, which Philo 
records, " O my lord and master, this temple has never, from the time of its origi- 
nal foundation until now, admitted any form made by hands; because it has been 
the abode of God. Pictures and images are only imitations of those gods who are 
perceptible to the outward senses, but it was not considered by our ancestors to be 
consistent with the reverence due to God to make any image or representation of 
the invisible God."— Philo on the Virtues and Office of Ambassadors, Seer. 3G. 
Such is the feeling of every Jew to this day ; such is no less the feeling of the Mos- 
lem. And this is the secret of their prejudice against Christianity, which they see 
only in the pictures and statues of the Eastern Churches, before which the wor- 
shipper bows. 



5V1 



NOTES ON THE 



to present their offerings amid its ruined courts ; or whether, indeed, 
the temple had, by this time, been actually burnt (as is disputed) : or 
whether they could have known its destruction (as is also uncertain) ; 
these things are of no consequence. They are going up to Jerusalem. 
The company from Samaria has joined itself to a second company at 
Sheehem ; and these two bands, proceeding southward-, have come 
up to a third from Shiloh, perhaps near Lebonah. The three bands of 
worshippers now united, are moving to the holy city ; a small company 
of believing men, who have not bowed the knee, either to Baal or to 
Jeroboam's calves, but still own Jerusalem as God's city, audits temple 
as the seat of true worship ; — they take the straight read to the 
city, — the great north road, which all coming from Shiloh or Sheehem 
would naturally take. This brings directly to Tuleil cl-Ful (Gibeah) 
and Shaphat, from which they take their way, over Scopus, to the 
city. Why should they make a detour over the hills to Nebi-Samwil, 
when the usual highway lay before them ? Such a circuit would not 
be taken by any one, unless he had a special reason for going out of 
his way, and would not surely be thought of by men who were press- 
ing on to " the house, of Jehovah" with their gifts-* Whether Shaphat 
be Mizpeh may, perhaps, still be questioned ; but it would seem, at 
least that Nebi-Samwil cannot be Mizpeh. 

There is a difficulty in arranging the scene which follows : — Ish- 
mael, after the slaughter of his victims, set out for the country 
of the Ammonites, but was overtaken by Johanan, near the pool 
of Gibeon. How could this be, seeing Amnion lies nearly due east 
of this place, where we would place Mizpch, and Gibeon lies west, 
near Nebi-Samwil? It would appear, however, that the eastern 
region between Jerusalem and Jordan was not safe for Ishmael to 
traverse (being probably occupied by Johanan and his men), and he 
was trying to push his way to A mm on by another route instead of 
taking the direct one. But, besides, the difficulty is nearly as great 
in the other way. No doubt, if Nebi-Samwil be Mizpeh, it is easier 
to account for Ishmael being found at Gibeon, than if Shaphat be 

•vf There is a passage in one of Jerome's Commentaries, which she"Ws that the 
companies wh ; eh came from Sheehem came by Bethel ; and having come so far as 
Bethel, on the main road, they would not diverge westward by Nebi-Samwil; — 
*' Sacerdotes Bethel, imo fanatici Eethaven, temporibus Paschse, et Pentecostes et 
Scenophigise, quando per Sichem, quse hodie Neapolis appellatur, eundum erat 
Hierosolymam, ubi solum licebat victimas immolare, ponebant in itinere latrorcs, 
qui insidiarentur pergentibus, ut magisvitulos aureosinDan et in Bethaven quam 
in Hierosolymis et in templo adorarent Dcum ;" (Comm. on Hos. vi. 9). This 
remark springs out of a translation of the ninth verse, somewhat different from 
our English version : but this does not invalidate the statement as to the Known 
route of travellers between Sheehem and Jerusalem. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM. 513 

Mizpeh ; but still Gibeon did not lie in his way to Amnion, and, 
though not so far out of his road as the other, yet it was not in his 
route. 

Scopus has been named as likely to be Mizpeh. But as I have 
noticed elsewhere, Scopus is not the translation of Mizpeh, but one of 
Josephus' Hellenized Hebraisms, so that it would seem that these were 
understood to be different places, however near they might be to each 
other. This is still more evident from the separate mention which 
Josephus makes of these places. In his Antiquities of the Jews (b. vi. 
ch. 2, sect. 1), he tells us, that Samuel gathered Israel to "a place 
called Masphat, which means in the Hebrew tongue, a place for look- 
ing fadtro'X'reijofMvov). And in his Jewish War (b. v. ch. 2, sect. 3), 
he mentions that Titus moved his legions to "a place named Scopusi 
from which the city began already to be seen." It is clear that Jose- 
phus understood them to be two separate places. 

There are other places both outside and inside Jerusalem which 
would require to be noticed, but the subject would require a volume. 

In regard to the names of the localities given by Josephus, we must 
remember that he sometimes gives the Hebrew name in Greek letters, 
as in Gennath, Siloam, Bczetha, Bethso, Xystus, Ophlas; and that 
sometimes he translates it for us, as " the fuller's monument," the 
"upper market-place," " the citadel." It may be questioned wdiether 
he is translating the following : — (1.) Scopus. This may be simple 
Greek, or it may be the Hebrew Shakaf; or Tsafa (as Lightfoot and 
Keisner give it), or it may be simply Tsafon, the north hill. (3.) Akra. 
The name of the hill, is not really the same as that of the citadel on 
Zion. Whether Akra be simply the Hebrew behind (inK)j I do not 
determine. If so, it would be " the hill behind Zion," or more proba- 
bly " the western hill" (behind is west). (3.) Tyropoeon. Of this I have 
spoken already. (4.) The Almond-pool. I suspect this is the Tower- 
pool (Migdol), for the Hebrew Migdol and the Greek Amygdalon are 
very similar. Perhaps also the sparrow'-pool (Strouthios), may be the 
pool of Ashtaroth. Xystvs is the house or hall built against the 
temple rests, for ft (ziz) is the Rabbinical word used for the "rests" or 
chambers, described in such places as 1 Kings vi. 5, (see Levi's Lingua 
Sacra on the word. Bethso is "the house of the outgoing" (N^). 

T T 

or the " house of floors or storeys" (JJ^). 

- T 

These are suggestions given out in the hope of farther investigation. 
The topography of Jerusalem is only beginning to be understood. It 
wi]l be a great evil if it be considered settled, as it is by some. A 
greater hindrance could hardly be devised in prevention of discovery, 
than the undiscriminating adoption of Dr Robinson's topographv. 

Kk 



# 



PART II. — TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 

This appendix is meant chiefly to contain a list of Books upon the 
geography and topography of Palestine, with such remarks on them 
as have occurred to the author. He has not come farther down than 
'he eighteenth century, as, after that, the works are too numerous to 
be noted in a volume like the present. Dr Robinson's list is valuable, 
but it is not complete. Nor is the present by any means so. But I 
have been able to lay my hands on several old ones not generally 
known. A complete list is still needed, and w^ould be valuable. 

The Bible is the great book of reference in the geography of Pales- 
tine; and the more minutely it is examined, the more thoroughly it is 
trusted in its topographical statements, as in all things else, the more 
accurate and clear will be our knowledge of the land. 

Next to the Bible comes Josephus ; fiom whom a great deal of cor- 
rect and important information is to be gleaned, especially in what 
relates to the topography of Jerusalem. He knew the country well, 
particularly from Jerusalem northwards, and his statements are to be 
relied on, even when the language of his descriptions is perhaps ex- 
aggerated. The Books of the Apocrypha contain many useful, though 
fragmentary references, which are worthy of attention. I should have 
said that Philo, though a Jew and writing on Jewish history, has only 
a few topographical allusions which are of any moment. His chapters 
are allegories, or at least disquisitions, not facts. 

The Septuagiht is often useful in enabling us to trace the changes 
of names ;* and sometimes in giving us the judgment of the translators 
as to meanings of places, and the like ; but its peculiarities are such 
as to render it not always a safe guide. 

After Josephus there is a blank for about three centuries, and it is 
at this point that so many links lie broken, it is to be feared irreparably. 

* In Josh. xv. 60, it has given u? the following names of piaces which, though 
not among the original cities of Judah, arose afterwards, and have been thus pre- 
served by the Greek:—" Thekoh, Ephratha, which is Baithleem, and Phagor, (the 
modern Beit Fejar or Beit Faphur), and Attain (Solomon's and Rehoboam's 
Etam), and Koulon (modern Kulonieh,) and Tatam, and Thobes, and Karem 
(modern Ain Karim, or perhaps Beth-haccerem ?), and Galem (perhaps Beitjalah), 
and Thether, and Manocho." 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WOSKS. 



515 



For the land, and especially its capital, was so often ploughed over, and 
wasted, while no one stood by to record its changes, that many names 
and places have been utterly effaced. The notices of Palestine during 
the days of Roman possession are few and meagre. Strabo about the 
middle, and Ptolemy about the end, of the first century, have left us 
some valuable information, though scanty ; the former too exclusively 
descriptive, the latter too exclusively mathematical or astronomical. 
The "Notitise" of the Empire, the Itinerary of Antoninus, the Bour- 
deaux Itinerary,* and the Peutingerian map or table, embody all 
the authentic information as to the geography of the East, under Ro- 
man occupation. The Peutingerian Map (so called, not from its 
framer, who is unknown, but from its owner Conrad Pcutinger, in the 
sixteenth century) as a chart of the roads of the Roman Empire, is 
always worth consulting, though it differs sometimes from the Anto- 
nine Itinerary.! It probably belongs to the beginning of the third 
century. These Roman documents, however, very imperfectly supply 
the place of full and veritable histories or geographies ; so that for up- 
wards of three centuries there is a gap in the geographical annals of 
Palestine. 

It is here that the early Fathers of the Church come in, to gather 
up the broken links, and to set in order the confusion. Eusebius of 
Cassarea (who died 338), Cyril of Jerusalem (386), Jerome of Bethle- 
hem (420), especially the first and last of these three, are our sources of 
information during the fourth century. We gather, indeed, little from 
Cyril but imbecile superstition, and he can describe the gates of hell 
as minutely as the gates of Jerusalem. But Eusebius, in his Onomas- 
ticon, has left us much most valuable information, which Jerome has 
copied, corrected, and slightly enlarged. These fathers came rather 
late. Before they ma.de the attempt to search for and gather up the 
last links, so many ages had elapsed, that, in some cases, even tradition 
had ceased to speak. Hence they had to make traditions where they 
could not find them; and some of these creations (such as some of 
those respecting Bethlehem and Jerusalem) had no other basis than 
the necessities of superstition. Pilgrims were bent on having stones 

* Itinerarium a Eurdigala Hierusalem usque. Supposed to be about the middle 
of the fourth century. Except in so far as Jerusalem is concerned, this is simply 
a list of names and distances. The old folio is very inaccessible ; but there is a 
beautiful reprint, both of the Antonine and Jerusalem Itineraries, at Berlin in 
1848, by Parthey and Pinder, which is the one referred to in the preceding volume. 

f The best edition of the Peutinger Map is that of Leipsic 1824, in large quarto 
on thick paper, with Dissertations prefixed. The map is divided into twelve 
segments, each nearly two feet broad by a foot and quarter long, with a very 
complete Index. 



516 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 



to kiss, and monks did not think scorn to adopt or invent holy lies. 
Hence their nomenclature of the country, in so far as it is ecclesiasti- 
cal, is not authentic ; but when it founds itself upon unobliterated 
monuments and a still articulate tradition, it is worthy of all credence. 

Thus up to this period we have three distinct classes of topogra- 
phers ; the Jewish, which may be said to terminate with the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem ; the Roman, which occupies nearly the three suc- 
ceeding centuries ; and the patristic or ecclesiastical, which began 
about the fourth century, and which has ruled the geographicul faith 
of all churches, Greek, Roman, and Protestant, till within thirty or 
forty years ago, when it began to be suspected and questioned. 

Totally distinct from these, at least from the two last, is what I may 
call the Rabbinical. To this I am inclined to ascribe more value than 
is usually done. The Rabbies were in some respects as fanciful as the 
Fathers ; but their fancies ran all in an opposite direction. They 
would not alter a word or point in a roll, though life might hang on 
it; and so they would not alter a name, or a site, or an old history, 
whatever might be the consequence. Hence they have preserved, in 
some cases, the ancient traditions as to places and names ; and their in- 
formation, though generally brief and casual, is worth having. Where 
you get a genuine Jewish tradition &s ;j i site, you have got a clue 
to the truth. Their immemorial traditions nave also been preserved 
in another form and way. The native population, coming in upon 
the land, and taking up the old names as they found them, has done 
more, perhaps, than anything else to give us materials for an authen- 
tic geography of Palestine. By the Arab names of the present day, 
even with all their uncouth distortion or decapitation of Bible words, 
we can thread our way backward.through patristic rubbish and Roman 
alterations, to the old Jewish nomenclature. 

From the time of Jerome, and onwards to our own day, the topo- 
graphy of Palestine has continued the same. Jerome had stereotyped, 
and very much of subsequent authorship has consisted of reprints 
from his stereotype plates. 

The works of crusading times throw little light on eastern topo- 
graphy.* They give us notices of the state of things in these ages 
(which of course are not without their value), but that is all.f 

-X- St Bernard's exhortations " ad milites Templi," contain nothing but declama- 
tion on Bethlehem, Nazareth, Olivet, Jordan, Calvary, &c 

t Hearing that there were some works of the Crusaders regarding Palestine in 
the public library of Valetta, I wrote to Dr Pisani there (whom I had the pleasure 
of meeting with when at ^ialta) regarding this. His reply is as follows:—'* I am 
Sony to say that in the J'S.S. which you mention you will not find any very valu* 



TOrOGUAPHICAL WORKS. 



517 



The works of pilgrim travellers are not in general valuable. But 
the following list of pilgrims of all ages, gathered chiefly out of Hak- 
luyt, may not be uninteresting. 

The Christian Traveller from Bordeaux, in A.D. 333. 

The Voyage of Helena, the Empress, daughter of Coelus, King of 
Britain, and mother of Constantine the Great, to Jerusalem, A.D. 337. 

Arculf, a French Bishop, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 697, 
and on returning was wrecked on the island of Iona. 

Willibald went from Eichstadt to Palestine in 765. 

Bernhard the Wise went to the Holy Places in 870. 

The Voyage of Swanus, one of the Sons of E.irl Grodwin, to Jerusalem, 
1052. 

The Voyage of Alured, Bishop of Worcester, to Jerusalem, 1058. 
The Voyage of Ingolphus, afterwards Abbot of Croiland, to Jerusa- 
lem, 1054. 

A Voyage made by diverse of the honourable family of the Beau- 
champs, with Robert Curtois, the son of William the Conqueror, to 
Jerusalem, 1095. 

The Voyage of Gutuere, an English lady, married to Baldwin, brother of 
Godfrey Duke of Bouiilon, toward Jerusalem, 1097. 

The Voyage of Edgar, the son of Edward, son of Edmund surnamed 
Ironside, to Jerusalem, 1102. 

The Voyage of Godericus, a valiant Englishman, to theHoly Land, 1102. 

The Voyage of Hardine, of England, one of the commanders of 200 sail 
of Christian ships which arrived at Joppa, 1102. 

A Voyage by Sea of Englishmen, Danes, and Flemings, who arrived at 
Joppa, in the Holy Land, in the 7th year of Baldwin King of Jerusalem. 

The Voyage of William, Archbishop of Tyre, to Jerusalem, etc., 1130. 

A Voyage of certain Englishmen to the Holy Land, 1147. 

The Voyage of John Lacy to Jerusalem, 1173. 

The Vovage of William Maundeville, Earl of Essex, to Jerusalem, 
1177. 

The Famous Voyage of Richard the First, etc., 1190. 
The Vovage of Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterburv, to Svria and Pa- 
lestine, 1190. 

The Vovage of Richard, surnamed Canonicus, to Palestine, 1190. 
The Vovage of William the Pilgrim, 1190. 
The Voyage of Hubert W alter, Bishop of.Salisburv, 1190. 
The Voyage of Randolph, Earl of Chester, etc., to the Holy Land. 1218. 
The Voyage of Henry Bohun and Saer Quincy to the Holy Land, 1222. 
The Vovage of Peter de Rupibu c , Bishop of Winchester, to Jerusalem, 
1231. 

The Voyage of Mr John Locke to Jerusalem, 1553. 

I do not here name the well-known works of early travel in Pales- 
tine, nor Benjamin of Tudela, nor William of Tyre, nor Broeardus, 

able information about the topography of Palestine. They were removed from the 
public library to the Secretary's office. The librarian told me that they were 
written by the Knights of the Order of St John, and all of them were in Latin. 
The only topographical information they contain is about St Jean d'Acre, Rhodes, 
and a few castles on the road to Jerusalem. 



518 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 



nor Quaresmius, I prefer noticing a few which are. perhaps, less 
known, but which have happened to come in my way.* 

370 — Hegesippi de bello Judaico et excidio Urbis Ilierosolymitanae, 
libri v. This is little more than a translation of.Josephus by an un- 
known author who takes the name of Hegesippus. From similarities of 
style, St Ambrose has been conjectured to be the translator; and Hege- 
sippus has been supposed to be another name for Josephus. 

450. — Eucherii Epistoia de situ Judaea urbisque Ilierosolymitanae. &c. 
He was Bishop of Lyons about the middle of the 5th century. This is 
chiefly from Josephus and Jerome. 

550 (?). — Itinerarium Antonini Placentini. There have been several 
editions of this work. Its author is supposed to have written about the 
middle of the sixth century. It contains a good many useful notes of 
places throughout the land. At Cana, he tells us, "Ego indignus,paren- 
tum meorum nomina seripsi." 

1190.— The History of William of Newburgh. This is one of the early- 
English historians, of whose works two or three editions have been pub- 
lished. I mention it here because of the frequent allusions in it to the 
Holy Land. See especially the third book. 

1190 — Vita et res gestae Saladini, auctore Bohadino F. Sjeddadi, &c, 
edidit ac Latine vertit A. Schultens, 1732. Though the names of places 
occur frequently in this biographical history, yet they are often so 
given as to be of little service to the topographer. The Geographical 
Index at the end, compiled from Arabic sources, is really valuable. 

1307. — Haythouus de Tartaris. Fe was a Cyprian monk, exhorting to 
crusades and giving information on Palestine and Egypt. I have only 
seen extracts from this. He also wrote "Liber Historiarum partium 
Orientis, in 1300. 

1313. — L. Ludolphi de Suchen Iter ad Terrain Sanctam ; et de statu 
ejus et aliis memorabilibus quse in Mari videlicet Mediterraneo conspi- 
ciunter, folio. Ludovic Ludoiph was Rector of the church or parish of 
Suchen, and dedicates the narrative of his journey to Jerusalem to his 
diocesan, Baldwin, Bishop of Paderborn. He travelled in 1313. To this 
edition no name nor date is prefixed, but it is supposed to be printed at 
Strasbourg in 1471. A quarto edition of it was published at Venice in 
14S0, along with a Latin edition of Maundeville. 

* The following books will give the reader a pretty full list of works connected 
with Palestine,— 

1. Catalogus Auctorum, appended to Adrichomius (p. 287). It contains about 
seventy names. 

2. Bibliotheca Latino-Hebraica, Imbonati, 1694. The author was a Jesuit, but 
his work is a learned one s containing upwards of twenty names, some of which I 
have not seen elsewhere. 

3. The Preface of Benedict Accoltus or Accolti, to his work on the Crusades 
(1623) contains a list of some curious works in the author's day. 

4. J. A. Fabricius, in his Bibliogra;. hia Antiquaria, &c, (1716) gives the fullest list 
we have seen. 

5. Victor Hennequin in his " Introduction Historique a l'etude de la Legislation 
Francaise" (1841) has two volumes on the Jews, at the close of the second of 
which, he gives a long list of works on the Jews and Palestine. 

These, with Dr Robinson's list, will nearly exhaust the catalogue. 
The Museum of Classical Antiquities, vol. ii. (1833) gives a full account of 
works relating to the Holy Sepulchre and the Topogrnphy of Jerusalem. 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 



519 



1422. — A Survey of Egypt and Syria, undertaken in the year 1422, by 
Sir Gilbert de Lamoy, translated from a (French) manuscript in the Bod- 
leian Library, London, 1826. This is a quarto, with both the French 
and English, and excellent notes, amounting in all to 164 pages. 

1432. — The Travels of Bertrandon de la Brocquiere to Palestine, and 
his return from Jerusalem overland to France during the years 1432 and 
1433. Extracted and put into Modern French from a MS. in the National 
Library at Paris. This traveller saw very little of Palestine. 

1470 — Itinerary, by William Wey, who twice visited the Holy Sepul- 
chre, some time about 1770, and died in 1474. This is a MS. in the Bod- 
leian Library. Wey gives very minute, and somewhat amusing directions 
to travellers, among which is the following, — <l Buy you a cage for half 
a dozen of hennys or chekyn to have with you, for ye schall have nede 
un to them meny tymes." 

1470. — History of the Temple of Jerusalem, by Jalal Addin, translated 
from the Arabic by Rev. J. Reynolds, 1836. The references to this book 
in the text will shew what sort of work it is. 

1483. — Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terra; Sancta? Arabia? et 
Egypti Peregrinationem. This is an interesting and intelligent work, 
too little known. It is by far the most minute of early travels. The 
edition used is that of Hassler, Stuttgardt, 1843. 3 vols. 

1506. — The Pylgrymage of Sir Richard Guylforde to the Holy Land 
AD. 1506. Printed for the Camden Society in 1851. This is a small 
quarto of 92 pages, not containing much beyond the common amount of 
information. He mentions an crder of Grey Friars on Mount Zion. 

1507. — Martini a Baumgarten in Braitenbach Peregrinatio in iEgyp- 
tum, Arabiam, Palcestinam, et Syriam. He travelled in 1507. He as- 
cended Mount Sinai by moonlight at two a.m. He had heard about the 
arched substructures of the Temple from a companion who had visited 
them. The date of this Latin edition is 1597, but the original German (a 
folio) is earlier. The book is sensible and ciear. 

1508. — Anselmi descriptio Terra? Sanctse et urbis Jerusalem. Craco- 
vise, 1514. He was a Minorite monk who travelled in Palestine in 1508. 

1523. — Itinerario de Ludovico de Yerthema, Bolognese, no lo Egypto, 
ne la Suria, nela Arabia Deserta, &c. This is a small quarto printed at 
Milan in 1523. The Venice edition is earlier, though without date. The 
Latin is Milan 1511. The author could hardly be said to traverse Pales- 
tine. He merely skirted it in his way south from Damascus to Arabia 
and India. The pages relating to Palestine are few, and these describe 
the region of the Dead Sea. The book has passed through many editions 
both in Latin and Italian. 

1524. — The Informacyun for Pylgrymes unto the Holy Lande, That is 
to wyte, to Rome, to Jherusalem, and to many other Holy Places. Im- 
printed by Wynkin de Worde, 1524. This rare volume is a hand-book 
for pilgrims, gives the routes, coin, conveyances, fees, and other instruc- 
tions to those who were going on any distant pilgrimage. It contains the 
narrative of a pilgrim in his journey to the Holy Land. See Retrospec- 
tive Review, vol. ii. p. 327. 

1525. — Itinerarium Terra? Sancta?, inibique sacrorum locorum ac rerum 
clarissima descriptio, &c , per Bartholomseum a Saligniaco, 1525. This 
is a black letter duodecimo of 140 pages, with full index, containing a 
pretty complete tour of the land. 

1530. — The Chronicles of Rabbi Joseph the Sphardi. This great work 
of a Spanish Jew in the beginning of the sixteenth century, contains many 
references to the East. In the references to this work I have u-;ed Dr 
Bialh.blotsky's translation in two vols, published in 1834 and 1836. 



520 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 



1538. — Ziegleri Jacob i Terrse Sanctae quam Palsestinam nominant, Sy- 
ria?, Arabia?, &c, descriptio, folio, Argent, 1536. This is a rare work, and 
said to be good. I have not seen it. 

1542. — Jodoci a Alegs:en patricii Lucerini Peregrinatio Hierosoly mi- 
tana. Dilingae 1580. This is the pilgrimage of a Swiss nobleman in 1542. 
It is a Latin duodecimo of 244 pages, simply written, but with no new 
information on any subject. 

1555. — Ongelu.kiae Jerusalemsche Reyse, by Melchior van SeidKtz. 
Amsterdam, I66C. This work seems to have been written in German, 
and translated into Dutch by P. V. ^Engelen. The author travelled in 
1555. He landed at Joppa, travelled to Jerusalem by Rama (p. 15). 
From this to p. 64 is a tour through the land. The rest is Damascus, 
Constantinople, &c. 

1563. — Jerusalem, vetustissima ilia et celeberrima totius mundi civitas, 
ex sacris literis et approbatis historicis ad unguem descripta, &c, quae 
Adamus Reisnerus, Germanica lingua delineata edidit. per Joannem 11 ey- 
denum. Francoforti, 1563. This is a folio of nearly 700 pages, and is one 
of the most minute and curious books that has been written upon the 
topography of Jerusalem. It is divided into seven books, with very 
numerous chapters in each. Each chapter is devoted to a locality or object, 
and has a threefold title, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Then the history 
follows, and the interpretation or allegorical application of the names or 
events. 

1572. — Civitates Orbis Terrarum, 1572. Only a page of this folio is 
given to Jerusalem (p. 52). There is a map professing to be a sketch of 
it in the author's day. Hoc tempore (says he) Hierosolyma Turcis Cuzu- 
moharech dicitur. 

1580. — Hierosolymitana Peregrinatio illustrissimi principis N. C. Rad- 
zivili, &c. Antwerp, 1613. This is a Latin folio of 300 pages. The 
prince travelled in 1580. It is an interesting and sensible volume. He 
seems to make the Frank mountain Engedi, p. 87. 

1589. — Theatrum Terrse Sanctaa et Biblicarum Historiarum cum ta- 
bulis geographicis sere expressis. Auetore Christiano Adrichomio, Del- 
pho. The date is not on the title-page, but the dedication by Gerard 
Brunius gives the date 1589. The work is very complete as a compilation, 
as a folio of 290 pages might be expected to be. That section of it rela- 
ting to Jerusalem was translated into English by Thomas Tymme, and 
published in London in 1595, as a small quarto. On a blank leaf of my 
copy there is the following manuscript piece of information in French. 
(i Adrichomius Christian, ne a Delft en 1553, ordonne Pretre en 1561, 
raourut en 1585 a Cologne, ou il se retira apres avoir ete chasse de son 
pays paries Protestants. Son ouvrage le plus celebreestle Theatrum Ter- 
ra? Sanctae, avec des Cartes Geographiques. a Cologne 1593, en folio. On a 
encore de lui une Chronique de l'ancien et du Nouveau Testament, ou il en- 
tasse bien des fables, a ( 'ologne en folio. II etait meilieur Geographe qu'- 
historien. Sa Geographie sainte passoit un chef-d'oeuvre d'exactitude." 

1597. — Jacobi de Vitriaco sedis Apostolicse in terra sancta, in imperio 
in Francia, olim legati, libri duo, quorum prior Orientalis sive Hierosoly- 
mitana?, &c. Duaci, 1597. This is a duodecem of moderate size, only about 
40 pases (from 80 to 115) relate to the Geography of Palestine. 

1600.— Palestina, written by Mr R. C. P., and bachelor of devinitie, 
Florence, lo^O. This is a small quarto of 200 pages, beginning with a 
description of the New Jerusalem, and giving a history of the life of Christ, 
partly figurative and partly liter.sl. It is of no topographical use. 

1600.- The Travels of foure Englishmen and a Preacher into Africa, 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 



521 



&c., and into Syria, Cilicia, Pisidia, Mesopotamia, Damascus, Canaan, Ga- 
lilee, Samaria, Judea, Palestine, Jerusalem. Jericho, and to the Red Sea, 
and to sundry other places ; begunne in the yeere Jubile 1600, and by 
ome of them finished the yeere 1611, the others not yet returned, at 
London, 1612. This author has no great reverence for the traditions of 
the East. Near the beginning of his book he thus writes : — " It is a loule 
sh;tme that any Christian brought up in so blessed a commonwealth as 
England should be so simple to believe such untruths as the superstitious 
friers of Rome, which- sojourne at Jerusalem, doe demonstrate or declare 
unto them." 

1602. — Lloyd's Stratagems of Jerusalem, with the Martial Lawes and 
Military Discipline as well of Jewes as the Gentiles, 1602. I do not know 
this work, but picked up its name in an old catalogue. 

1 Gil. — Timberlake, Henry, a true and strange Discourse of the Travels 
of Two English Pilgrims; what admirable accidents befel them in their 
journey towards Jerusalem, Gaza, Grand Cairo, Alexandria, and other 
places. London, 1611, quarto. See the following. 

1611. — A true and strange Discourse of the Travels of two English 
Pilgrims, what admirable accidents befel them on their journey towards 
Jerusalem, Gaza, &c. Also, what rare antiquities, monuments, and valu- 
able memoirs they saw in Terra Sancta, with a perfect description of the 
old and new Jerusalem, and situation of the countries about them. A 
discourse of no less admiration, written by Henry Timberlake, on the 
behalf of himself and his fellow pilgrims. London, 1611, small 8vo. pp. 
33. These two volumes are so far the same. They are well written, and 
strongly Protestant. 

1611. — The Preacher's Travels to the Confines of the East Indies, 
through the great countries of Syria, Mesopotamia, &c, by John Cart- 
wright. 1611. 

1612. — Vovages en Afrique, Asie, &c , faits par Jean Mocquet. Ron en, 
1645. The fifth book contains Palestine. He calls Khan Minyeh, La- 
meny; speaks of Joseph's cisterns as covered with a dome resting on 
marble pillars, meutions./tve deep cisterns in the Plain of the Shepherds. 

1619. — Journael ofte Beschryvinge van de Jerusalemsz Reyse, gedaen by 
Adriaen de Vos. Delf. 1655. This is a small quarto, travels made in 
1619 and 1620, somewhat brief but distinct. 

1620. — Trattato delle Piante et imagini de sacri edifizi di Terra Santa, 
&c, dal R. P. Bernardino. In Firenza, 1620. This is a small folio of 66 
pages, interspersed with plans and maps. The descriptions are brief. 

1620. — Fureri C. Itinerarium Aegypti Arabiae Palestinae, Syriae 
aliarumque Regionum Orientalium. Norimbergae, 1620. This is said to 
be rare and valuable, but I have not seen it. 

1623. — Benedicti Accolti de bello a Christianis contra barbaros gesto, 
pro Christi sepulcro et Judaea recuperandis, libri iv. Thomas Demp- 
sterus, Baro a Muresk Scotus, cum aliis scriptoribus collatos et men- 
dis expurgavit et notis non vulgaribus, illustravit. Florentise, 1623. 
Superiorum permissu. A good enough history with notes. 

1625.— Voyages de Pietro della Valle, dans la Turquie, l'Egypte, la 
Palestine, &c, nouvelle edition, 6 vols, et Rouen, 1745. This author's 
travels extended over many years ; but he seems to have been in Palestine 
about 1625. His voyages have been translated into several languages, 
English, French, Dutch, German. It is the French copy that I have 
used. The second vol. relates to Palestine, and gives a brief but not un- 
interesting description of what was seen and heard. 



522 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 



1631. — Elias Thesbites, sive de rebus Eli le Prophetae, Comraentarius 
posthumus patris Aegidii Caraarti. Parisiis, 1631. This is a quarto of 
more than 400 pages by a Jesuit, in which several points of topography 
are taken up, such as that relating to Thisbe, the birth-place of Elijah. 
It is a learned work, containing nut only the life of Elijah, but notices of 
all the abbots, monks, presbyters, and soldiers of that name. 

1633. — Arabia, seu Arabum vicinarumque gentium Orientalium leges, 
&c, De Nonnuilis Orientalium urbibus, a G. Sionita professore et inter- 
prete regio. Amstelodami, 1633. Nothing new in this volume. 

1636. — Historia urbis et regni TI iersolv initani auctore Christophoro 
Besoldo. Argentorati, 1636. A thick duodecimo of 1300 pages, contain- 
ing many allusions to places in Palestine, specially in crusading time:-, 
lie refers to the Rock of the Mosque (p. 346), and calls the Mosque 
Cubisahara (Kubbet-es-Sakhrah). He mentions that a Greek Bishop 
and a Spanish Minorite were put to death for entering the mosque 
(p. 314). 

1642. — Historia dell' Antica e Moderna Palestina descritta in tre parti, 
dal V. R. P. F. Vincenzo Berdino. Venice, 1642. The author was Com- 
missioner-General in Palestine for some years, and he has given us a full 
and sensible work, consisting of upwards of 400 pages of small quarto. 
Like most of the old writers, he places Capernaum near the junction of 
the Jordan with the lake, part ii. p. 53. 

1644. — Le Pieux Pelerin, ou voyage de Jerusalem, divise en trois livres; 
contenans la description Topographique, &c, luinct un discourse de 
1 'Alcoran et un traicte de la cite de Jerusalem, etde tousles Saincts lieux. 
de Palestine, le tout remarque et recueiili, par le Pere Bernardin Surius 
recollect. President d'un Sainct Sepulchre, et Commissionaire de terre 
Saincte es annees 1644-45-46-47. Brussels, 1664. This is a thick quarto 
of 600 pages, of which the latter half only relates to Palestine. He speaks 
of Magdala as having a beautiful plain to the east, which corresponds to 
Mijdel. 

1646. — La Terre Saincte, ou description topographique tres particuliere 
de saincts lieux, et de la Terre de Promission. Avec un Traitte de qua- 
torze nations de differente Religion qui rhabitent, leursmceurs, croyance, 
ceremonies et police. Le t^ut enrichi de figures, par F. Eugene Roger, 
Recollect, Missionaire de Barbarie. A Paris, 1646. A quarto of 250 
pages, sensible, though not giving much new. He refers to the Frank 
mountain as both Hachilah and Masada (p. 177). 

1650. — Itinerarium totius Sacrse 'cripturse, or travels of the holy 
Patriarchs, Prophets, Judges, Kings. &c, as they are related in the Old 
and New Testament, with a description of the towns and places to which 
they travelled, and how many English miles they stood from Jerusalem. 
Collected out of the works of Henry Bunting, and done into English by 
R. B. London, 1682. This is a quarto of above 430 pages, containing a 
good digest of the topography of Palestine. The first edition was pub- 
lished more than thirty years earlier. 

1650. — A Description and Explanation of 268 places in Jerusalem and 
the suburbs thereof, as it flourished in the time of Jesus Christ, answerable 
to the most exact description of the map, shewing the several places of 
the acts and sufferings of Jesus Christ and his holy apostles; very useful 
for clearing many places in the prophets, Josephus, and other histories. 
Newly translated bv Mr Jessy. This work I have not seen. Its date is 
about 1650. 

1653. — Hierologia ; in qua loca sacra, describuntur auctore R. P. D. 
Ingolstadii, 1653. The fifth book takes up the sacred places beginning 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WOUKS. 



523 



with Bethlehem. He speaks of Hebron as in ruins, and a new city rising 
round the cave. 

1654— El devoto Peregrino, y viage de Tierra S;inta, por el M. R. 
Padre, F. Antonio del Castillo, &c, en Paris, 1666. Antonio was " Guar- 
dian de Belen" (Bethlehem) for a number of years and knew the land. 
The book is full of plates and maps. The first edition was, I believe, 
published at Madrid in 1654. The one I have is Paris. He speaks of the 
town of Tiberias as a total ruin in his day. He sets Magdalum at Mejdel, 
Rethsaida at Khan Minyeh, and Capernaum at the junction ol the Jordan 
with the lake. The Frank Mountain he makes to be Tekoah, p. 297. 

1658. — Joan n is Bisselii Palestine Topothesia. Ambergae, 1659. This 
is a small work of 158 pages by a Jesuit, a« many of the works on Pales- 
tine at that time were. It is a good manual, brief, but clear. 

1663. — Geographia in Moralem translata. Daniel Bartoli, 1663. This 
might be called geography moralised or spiritualised. The two last 
chapters relate to Palestine, — the one being on the Dead Sea and the 
other on the Holy Land. It is the Italian translation which I have. 
Though the book is the work of a learned Jesuit, it is of no value, save as 
a mere piece of moralising. 

1665. — Christophori Heidmanni Palestina, sive Terra Sancta, paucis 
capitibus distincte ordineque explicata, &c. "VYolferbuti, 1665. This is a 
quarto of 232 pages. It is the third edition of the work with corrections 
by Henry Ernst. Heidm aim's own preface gives us no date, but the 
first edition must have been somewhat earlier than the above. The maps 
are reduced from those of Adrichomius. It is a carefully compiled work. 

1665. — Geographia Sacra ex Yeteri et Novo Testamento Desumpta, &c. 
Auctore Nic. Sanson, 1701. A full and learned work. Sanson published also 
an Index Geographicus, relating to his former work. In it he maintains 
that Nob and Anathoth are the same. 

1670. — Histoire de Yoyage de la Terre Saint, par Jacques Goujon. 4to, 
Lyon, .1670. 

1674. — Guilielmi de Waha Melreusii,Labores Herculis Christiani,God- 
fredi Bulioni, Insulis Flandrorum, 1674. A duodecimo of 500 pages, of 
which only a part refers to Pale&tine. I have not seen the ancient 
Dutch romance on Godfrey der Scoense Historien Hertoghe Godevaerts 
van Boloen, published at Harlem in 1486. 

1682. — Itinerarium totius Scriptural, etc., collected out of the works 
of Henry Bunting, and done into English by R. B. London, 1682. This 
is a compilation, but very complete in its way. It forms a quarto of 434 
pages. 

1683. — Yiaggio in Levante al Santo Sepolcro, et altri Luoghi de Terra 
Santa, di Dominico Laffe Bolognese. Bologna, 1683. This tour was made, 
as the author mentions in his first chapter, in 1678. The narative is full 
and distinct, with more of observation in it than is to be found in many 
of the ecclesiastical narratives of the day. The book is a thick duodecimo 
of 576 pages, without maps or plans. It contains a long chapter on Jeru- 
salem. He speaks of the citadel as the Tower of David, and the Castle 
of the Pisans (413). He mentions the Turkish name of Jerusalem as 
Cuzumufarech or Codsfarich (a compound of El-Kuds) ; he gives the Frank 
mountain as Achilla (Hachilah), and refers to the Cave of Adullam as 
hard by (p. 403). He is one of those that notice the rock-cut channel 
between the Pool of the Yirgin and Siloam (p. 171). 

1693. — De Sacris Aedificiis a Constantino Magno Constructis, Synopsis 
Historiee Joannis Ciampini, etc., Rome, 1693. A folio of 220 pages, full 



524 



TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 



of plates, executed not amiss. The descriptions are mere extracts from 
other writers. 

1695. — Siria Sacra, Descrittione historico Geographica, cronologica, 
topografica, delle chiese PatrUrcali Antiocliio e G-erusalemme, folio, 
maps. Rome, 1695. 

1699. — Apparatus Chronologicus et geographicus, auctore Bernardo 
Lamy. Parisiis, 1699. The last 70 pages of this small folio are geogra- 
phical, and give a good condensation of information on the general topo- 
graphy of Jerusalem, and of the chief parts of Palestine. 

1699. — Apparatus Geographicus, descriptio Judeae, &c , auctore B. 
Lamy. Paris, 1699. An excellent compendium of Geography, full of 
the correct information with, which all the author's works abound. He 
has a good discussion on the site of Bethsaida. pp. 313, 314. 

1700. — Relation Nouvelle et tres-fidele du Voyage de la Terre Sainte, 
&c, par F. F. Beau^rand. A Paris, 1700. This is a duodecimo of 160 
pages; brief, but giving a good account of Palestine. He is one of those 
that make Beit-jalah Rama, p. 97. 

1700. — Historia Hierosolymse, ab urbe condita, usque ad nostra tem- 
pora. Hermann Witsius. This is a brief but very valuable compilation. 
It forms two long " Exercitations " in the works of Witsius, vol. ii. 

1713. — Peregrinus affectuose per Terrain Sanctam et Jerusalem a devo- 
tione et curiositate conductus, &c, annot mte et deferente fratre Conrado 
Hietling. Olim guardiano Bethlemitico, 1713. This is rather an ecclesi- 
astical than a topographical folio, being full of directions for pilgrims, 
processions, &c. It contains the largest number of hymns for processions 
and pilgrimages that we have ever seen ; besides a great amount of de- 
scriptive hexameter verse by the author himself. The topographical 
notices are brief but excellent. 

1720. — Relation des Voyages faits dans la Turquie, la Thebaide, et la 
Barbarie, contenant des avis politiques qui peuvent servir de lumieres aux 
Rois et aux Souverains de" la Chretiente, pour garentir leurs Etats des 
incursions des Turcs, et reprendre ceux qu'ils ont usurpe sur eux. Par 
le R. P. J. Coppin, Consul des Francois a Damiette, et Syndic de la Terre 
Sainte. A Lyon, 1720. 

1731. — Notitia orbis Antiqui, sive Geographia plenior, &c, by C. Cel- 
larius, edited by Schwartz, 1731. This book is generally known, so I 
merely give its name. 

1744. — The Travels of Charles Thomson, Esq., in France, Italy, Turkey, 
the Holy Land, &c, with a curious description of Jerusalem, 3 vols. 
1744. It is the last of these volumes that relates to Palestine. It is a 
sensible narrative of the author's tour. 

1752. — A Genuine Voyage to Smyrna, Ac, a minute detail of the pre- 
sent state of Jerusalem made during a three years' residence in that city^ 
with a relation of the pilgrim's journey to the Holy Land, by S. Lusig- 
nan, 1801. This is the second edition of this work, and is in two volumes. 
It was in 1752 and 1753 that the author visited the East, and his letters 
are dated in different years. Learned, but discursive. 

1759. — Travels through part of Europe, Asia Minor, several Islands of 
the Archipelago, Syria, Palestine, Mount Sinai, &c. Ac, written in 
Low Dutch, by the Hon. Mr Van Egmond and John Heyman, Professor 
of the Oriental Languages at Leyden. In two vols, octavo. Excellent. 

1764. — Travels in several parts of Turkey, Egypt, and the Holy Land, 
by James Haynes. London, 1741. This traveller, who was a merchant's 
clerk at Cairo, visited only Galilee. He is among the few who visited and 
described Yafa near Nazareth. 



TOPOGRAPH!! AL WORKS. 



525 



There are a good many others whose names I have from time to 
time noted down, but have not been able to see, such as the follow- 
ing :— 

Alphonso Tostati, liber, de situ seu descriptione Terrae Sanctae, 
about 1520 : Christopheri Pizellii Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, Coloniae, 
quarto, 1593; Jacobi Ziegleri Terrae Sanctae, descriptio, 1532, a writer 
whom a Popish author describes as hereticus primae classis ; Joannis 
Ceverio Viage de la Tierra Santa descripcion de Gerusalem, &c, 8vo, 
1597 ; Joannis Dublivlii Hierosolvmitanae peregrinationis Hodoepericon, 
septem dial, libr. explicatum. Colon. 1600; Joannis Pastritii Index Geo- 
graphicus Terra? Sanctee, about 16C0; Joannis Pastritii Palestina seu 
Terra Sancta, deque Metropoli Hierosolyma ; Joannis Perusinse descriptio 
Terra? feancta?, una cum lndice, &c, about 16C0 ; Leonardi Ravvolphii 
Itinerarium Orientale in Syriam, Judeeam. 1583; Leoniceni de variis 
urbibus Palestir.a3; Matthaei Aurogalli de Hebraeis urbum, Ac, nominibus, 
1526 ; Michaelis Aitsinger Terra Promissiones Topographice et historice, 
1582; Roderici Dosma del Gado Topographia locorum ad sacras literas 
pertinentium, 1601. 

Of works published within the last thirty years, I need not say any- 
thing. The most important are well known, and their number is so 
great as to preclude all attempt to give a list of them. I have referred 
to a good many of them in the course of the foregoing volume. The 
rest must be left to the reader's own research. 



INDEX. 



INDEX. 



Ab, month of, 339. 

AMI, 460. 

Abus Ain, 364. 

Abyad, Has el, 472. 

The " white headland," from the colour 
of its rocks. " Feitfell" (not " fitful"), in 
the south of Shetland, is just u white hill." 

Acco, or Acre, or St Jean d'Acre, 
or Ptolemais, 473, 474. 
The Old Testament name is Accho, which 
means " sun-heated sand." Some of the 
old travellers call it Acri. Here Petachia 
met with Jews (12th century). Travels, 
p. 63. 

Adoraim, 54. 

Adullam, 242... the Ravine, 244... 

the Cave, 245, 246, 248. 
Ain et-Tin, 437, 439. 

At Khan Minyeh. Is this the same as 
is mentioned in Midrasch Koheleth, 95, 
col. 2, where the writer speaks of the 
men of " En-Teenah." (Reland, p. 764.) 
It was not far from Sepphoris. 

Ajalon, 261. 

'"A large stag," or "great ram;" see 
Jones and Gesenius. 

Akeldama, 147, 216, 238.. .Old 
Tombs, 239... Vault, 240. 
v Field of blood," Simon's Onom. N T., 
Bynaeus de Morte Christi, vol. ii. p. 454. 

Akra, 316. 

Aksa-el, 199. 

" The farthest off," say some. But does 
not Jalal Addin explain it when he says, 
"The full complement of mosques shall 
never extend beyond this; never shall a 
finger's breadth be bound up in addition 



to the places of God's repose beyond this," 
»'. e. no other temple shall ever be founded 
beyond El Aksa ? Hist, of Temple, p. 236. 
Altar, 191, 192. 

It seems to be generally thought that it 
was the altar that was specially called 
Ariel, and that from it Isaiah calls the 
city by that name. The Jews dwell upon 
the former; and perhaps it was in refe- 
rence to this that Mary, the daughter of 
Bilga, whom the Rabbies describe as apo- 
statizing and marrying a Greek soldier, in 
the days when Greece held Jerusalem, re- 
ferred, when, approaching the venerable 
altar, she said, "0 wolf, wolf, thou de- 
vourest the substance of Israel ! yet in the 
day of distress thou wilt not help them ;" 
Lightfoot, Disquis. Choragr. Or is the re- 
ference to the wolf of Benjamin ? 

Amus, Ain-, at Hebron, 84. 

Anakim, cities of, 49, 52. 

Anupta, 364. 

Anathoth, 150, 261, 342. 

Means "the answerer;'' perhaps from 
some echo. Does Isaiah refer to this (x. 
30), "Answer, O Anathoth ;" in our version, 
u O poor Anathoth." Jerome mentions 
Anathoth as still existing in his day. 
Speaking of Jeremiah, he says, " He was 
an inhabitant of Anathoth, which to this 
day is a village, three miles distant from 
Jerusalem;" tribus ab Hierosolymis dis- 
tans millibus ; Works, vol. i. p. 347. The 
present Anata is somewhat more. By 
some it has been thought to be the same 
as Nob. They must have been near each 
other. 

Anim, 35. 

Probably Ghawein. Anim means " two 
fountains," the contracted form of the 
dual ; and this makes it more likely, that 

L 1 



530 



INDEX. 



it is represented by the plural Ghawein. 
The Sept. make it A/tfCt/X. 
Aphek, the modern Ftk, 418. 
Aqueduct, Solomon's. 98, 122 ; near 
Samaria. 377 ; near Acco. 
Is it to this that reference is made in 2 
Chron. xxxii. 4, "the brook that ran 
through the land? " It is the only thing 
in the shape of a running brook that ex- 
ists in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; 
and the stoppage of this would be a great 
matter in the case of a siege ; for it would 
supply the besiegers with water. What 
became of it in the days of the Crusaders, 
we do not know. It must have been 
stopped, else they could not have been so 
destitute of water. 

Arad, in the tribe of Judah, 25... 
Tell Arad, 26. 

Avar ah Wady, 10. 

This wady lies eastward from Beersheba, 
and somewhere in it was the ancient 
Aroer of Judah, 1 Sam. xxx. 28. Ararah 
is said by Dr Robinson to mean " pits for 
water ;" "but in the Hebrew it signifies a 
plant. In Jer. xlviii. 6, our translation 
gives it as " heath," the Vulgate u myrica" 
(tamarisk - ), while the Seventy make it an 
animal, ovor ayeiog, having mistaken 
the resh for the daleth (see also Jerem 
xvii. 6). Gesenius gives the Arabic word 
as meaning "juniper;" and Dr Robinson 
mentions that, on the way between Heb- 
ron and Wady Musa, he observed the 
Juniper tree, and found that the Arabs 
called it Arar, vol. ii. p. 124. We thus 
get, through the Arabic, the exact plant 
which our translation calls heath, and 
learn that it is juniper,- while we get, 
through the same channel, the exact plant 
which our translation calls juniper, and 
find that it is broom (ritt'm). Dr Wilson 
shews that it is not Araarah, but Jirar, 
that means pits for water, or, at least, 
water-pots ; so that the wady cannot take 
its name from these; Lands of the Bible, 
vol. i. p. 347. 

AraunalCs thrashing-floor, 190,191. 
Arb, Ain-, at Hebron, 84. 
Arbela, 435. 

Arch, of gateway, 134; between 
Moriah and Zion, 144. 

Aroer, 10, 24, 25. 

Asal (Wady), 458. 

Ashes, mounds of, 217 ; colour and 
size, 218; origin, 219; com- 



position, 221 ; are these temple 
ashes, 220-224, 312. 

Epher or Apher is the usual Hebrew 
word for ashes or dust ; a word which has 
given name to some cities in Palestine, 
such as Aphra (Mic. i. 10). Epher is the 
usual word for ashes (Num. xix. 9; Lam. iii. 
16), and apher for dust ; yet the latter is the 
word used for the ashes of the heifer (Num. 
xix. 17) and for the relics of the idols burnt 
by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 4-6, 12-15), and for 
the rubbish of the city in Xehemiah's time 
(Neh. iv. 2-10). Nehemiah' s Mahare moth 
ha-aphar (heaps of ashes) sounds very 
like " the hills of ashes," and still more like 
Tabler's schutt-hvgel. Another not unfre- 
quent word for ashes is deshen, which is 
chiefly used for the ashes of the altar, and 
is that employed in Jer. xxxi. 40, " the 
valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes." 
The Jews have much to say about the 
ashes, — their gathering together in a silver 
urn each morning (leaving only a tappuach 
or conical heap upon the altar) and their 
being carried out (see Lamy de tempi o, 
p. 1248: Cramerus de ara, chap. vi. s.l ; 
Dassovii Antiq. Hebr. p. 124; Lightfoot, 
Temple Service, chap. ix). As the fire 
was not allowed to go out, so the ashes 
were never wholly carried away (Cramer, 
chap. vi. p. 25; Reland's Antiq. Sacrae, p. 
97), as if to shew that it was all one fire and 
one victim. The ashes were to be deposited 
■without the city in a low place where the 
wind could not reach them (Lightfoot, 
Temple Service, chap. ix). Dassovius saps 
that this deposit was made to the east of the 
city, and refers to Maimonides de jug. 
Sacrif. chap, ii., and Mishna de jug Sacrif. 
chap. i. If this be correct, then they were, 
in all likelihood, laid down somewhere in 
the low bed of the Kedron. (Dassovii 
Antiq. Hebr. p. 124, 125). 

Having said this much about the sacri- 
ficial ashes, I now give the following state- 
ments as to the hills of ashes, completing 
what I have said in the text. I first give 
the analysis made in Liebig's laboratory. 

Ashes from From the 





the top. 


basis. 


Soluble silicic acid, 


1 212 


1.421 


Alkalis, .... 


1.150 


0.820 


Oxide of iron, 


c.762 


0.8/5 


Calcium, 


45.230 


. 44.654 


Magnesium, 
Residuum, red hot, but 


6.785 


4.996 






insoluble, . 


6.963 


6. aw 


Carbonium, . 


1.706 


3.750 


Phosphoric acid, . 


0.716 


0.819 


Aluminum, . 


3.750 


2.8G6 


Carbonic acid, 


30.610 


32.540 




98.886 


99.40S 


Loss 


1.114 


(».592 




100.000 


100.00C 



Next I give a letter to me from Dr 



INDEX 



531 



Richardson of Newcastle, who, at Hie time 
when he made the following analysis, knew 
nothing of any theory on the origin of the 
ashes. 

XeiveaMle-on-Tyne, 21st Jan. 1857. 
My Dear Friend,— The sample handed to me 
contains — 

Lime, 32.48 

Magnesia, .... 14.02 
Alumina, .... 4.25 
Oxide iron, .... trace 

Sand, &c 5.50 

Carbonic acid, &c. . . . 43.80 

100.00 

Which is the composition of ordinary magnesian 
limestone, of which, I believe, the temple was 
built. In the interior of several of the small round 
masses or concretions, fragments of charcoal may 
be observed, which appear to have served as a nu- 
cleus in their formation. The presence of these 
fragments of charcoal, and the general appearance 
of the sample, would suggest that it is not an or- 
dinary geological deposit, but rather the produce 
of water charged with carbonic acid, percolating 
through a mass of burnt lime. Such is also the 
opinion of my friend Mr Browell, who has exa- 
mined the specimen with me in the laboratory. 

It has often occurred to me, does this land con- 
tain natural phosphate of lime, &c. as a mineral 
or some other product, which in latter days will 
be employed in restoring its fertility ? &c, &c. — 
Believe me, Yours very sincerely, 

Thomas Ejcharosox. 

Having written to Dr R. as to the 
opinions afloat on the origin of the mounds, 
he thus briefly replies : — 

Newcastle-on-Tyne, 26th Feb. 1857. 
My Dear Friend, — The mound of ashes may 
have arisen from the refuse of a soapery, which is 
chiefly carbonate of lime ; but 1 incline to our pre- 
vious expressed opinion, that they have resulted 
from the action of rain-water on burnt limestone. 
Chemically there is not a trace of evidence to shew 
that they coixld have been the ashes of the sacri- 
fices. — Yours most truly, 

Thomas Richardson. 
I then submitted the following queries : — 

1. What special substance ought to be 
present in the ashes to prove them to be 
animal remains ? 

2. Is the absence of that special substance 
a proof that they are not animal remains ? 
might not that substance have disappeared ? 

3. What conclusion would you come to 
respecting the origin of the ashes, looking 
at them simply as a chemist ? 

4. Are the soap ashes of this country 
identical with these ? Do they much re- 
semble them ? 

5. Can soap-ashes exist for centuries, or 
would rain not wash them away or wind 
scatter them ? 

6. Would soap-ashes cake together and 
crystallise as these have done ? would they 
take this special form, of nodules, with a 
carbonic nucleus ? 

7 Are soap-ashes so bulky as to form 
such heaps ? Do they do so in our country ? 

8. Is there any substantial difference 
between Liebig's Analysis and yours ? 



Does his infer (as some think) the animal 
origin of the ashes ? 

To this I received the following minute 
and interesting reply, for which Dr R. will 
accept my best thanks : — 

Xewcastle-on-Tyne , 11th Sept, 1857. 
My Dear Friend, — 1 will first reply to your 
queries, and then add one or two jemarks which 
occur to me as bearing on the question. 

1. The only special substance which might, un- 
der the circumstances, prove the animal origin 
of the remains, is phosphoric acid. 

2. But if the presence of phosphoric acid, under 
all circumstances, had been conclusive on the 
point of their animal origin, then its absence 
would prove the contrary ; because it ought not 
to have entirely disappeared. 

3. Viewed from a chemical point, they would 
appear to be the debris of a conflagration, which 
still retained portions of the charred timber. 

4. The soapers' ash of the present day has no 
resemblance to these remains ; but deducting 
the pieces of charcoal, the chemical composition 
is not very dissimilar. 

5. Soapers' ash, whether from olden or modern 
processes, is of a light character and loose texture, 
so that winds and rain would be very likely agents 
to scatter them, especially fresh from the manu- 
factory. 

6. The conditions would require .to be very pe- 
culiar to enable soapers' ash to assume the appear- 
ance of these remains. 

7. Soapers' ash are generally employed in this 
country in glass-making, or as a manure, and 
therefore there are no accumulations of this re- 
fuse product ; nor do I think that, as at present 
produced, they could form such heaps as those ex- 
isting at Jerusalem. 

8. I do not remember Liebig's analysis. 

Your last samples had a specific gravity of 2.9GG, 
and consisted of 

Lime, 47.04 

Magnesia, .... trace 
Oxide iron and alumina, . 4.20 

Sand, &c 5.15 

Loss by heat, . . 43.60 

99.99 

And those heaps you describe must therefore con- 
tain 263,985 tons weight of this material 1 

In 1852 there were upwards of 300 soap-makers 
in this country, who manufactured 87,0fc8 tons of 
soap, and had all their refuse been collected in one 
spot, it would have required nearly twenty-five 
years to have produced such a weight of remains 
as the above, and this without any waste from 
any cause. 

Again, it is very doubtful whether soap was 
really made much before the date of the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. The Hebrew Borith (most pro- 
bably potashes or vegetable lye) and Kether (soda, 
or mineral lye,) certainly cannot be translated 
soap ; and all allusions to washing in Homer, 
Aristophanes, and Plato, are evidently applied to 
the use of ashes of plants and not soap. Pliny is 
the first author who makes distinct mention of 
soap. He states it to be a Gallic invention. It is 
also more than doubtful whether at this time the 
use of quicklime was known to improve the ac- 
tion of the ashes, and without which there could 
be no refuse to produce the material of these re- 
mains. 

These considerations and the character of the 
remains, as described in my former letter, cer- 
tainly do net favour the idea that they result from 
soap work, but are rather the debris of a conflag- 
ration. — I am, My Dear Friend, yours very truly, 

TfiOJIAS KlCHARDSUS. 



532 



INDEX. 



This is all that I can say as to these 
hills. 1 shall be glad if any will prove them 
to be the relics of Israel's sacrifices. The 
only things that strike me in favour of 
this, are (1.) That the ashes were to be 
deposited in a clean place, which, gene- 
rally speaking, the Kedron was not, but 
defiled with dead bodies and offal. The 
north, or north-west of the city, would 
present the best place, in the sense of 
clean ; but then it is so exposed, that the 
wind has access to it in all directions. (2). 
The sin-offering of the high-priest was to 
be carried out and burnt in a clean place, 
where the ashes are poured out (Lev. iv. 
12). This could not be in the Kedron. 
But it might be in the place where the 
red- heifer was burnt and his ashes gather- 
ed up, which, immemorial tradition says, 
was some spot on the Mount of Olives 
(Jerome, Epitaphium Paula? ; Lightfoot, 
Temple Service, chap. 17, § 2), right oppo- 
site the gate Shnshan, quite above that 
part of the Kedron which was defiled by 
the offal of the city and temple. 

Zunz quotes the Rabbies as to the 
ground on the north-east of the mount of 
the temple being of an ashy nature. But 
the present mounds of ashes lie precisely in 
the opposite direction, north-west. I find 
no reference to them elsewhere. Possibly 
in Crusading writers there may be. As 
the Rabbies say that the temple ashes were 
laid to the east, this ashy ground of Zunz 
may have been occasioned by them. 

Askar, probably Sychar, 368. 

Ater, 258, 259. 

This name of the Rabbi's father will 
remind the reader of "the children of 
Ater of Kezekian," Ezra ii. 16, Xeh. vii. 
21, and of the porters of the temple, 9 the 
children of Ater," Ezra. ii. 42, Xeh. vii. 45. 
The name of Ater occurs among those 
that "sealed," Xeh. x. 17. The word 
means shut, or bound, or dumb. 

Attir, 35. 

Probably the Jaifir,the u lofty" city of 
Judah (Josh. xv. 48 ; xxi. 14 ; 1 Sam. x'xx. 
27; 1 Chron. vi. 57). 
Ayd Abu, Bir, 85. 

Azmaveth, 261. 

•' Strong to death." as a warrior, or, as 
Paul, "always delivered unto death" (2 
Cor. iv. 11). Elah thus became Azama- 
reth, the " warrior's valley/' 

Ballut, 45, 50, 57, 83. 

This tree we found all over Palestine, 
from Dhahariyah to Galilee. Some times 
it was small and stunted, some times 
of va>tsize; as in the instance of Abra- 
harn'a oak »t Hebron, ami the huee steins 



at the foot of Tabor. There was no mis- 
taking the identity of the tree. This is 
the tree which seems to correspond to the 
Hebrew Allon; for Allon is the word for 
"oaks of Bashan" (Tsa. ii. 13. Ezek. xxvii.6, 
Zech. xi. 2), and we know that the regions 
of Bashan and Gilead to this day abound 
with the prickly evergreen oak, just as in 
the mountains around Hebron. The Bal- 
lut, then, is the same tree as the Allon; 
and possibly the words themselves may be 
the same, in spite of the b at the com- 
mencement of the Arabic word; and it 
is curious to notice that the Septuagint 
Allon by /3aAavoc, Gen. xxxv. 8. In 
Isa. ii. 13, it is gcr/ ~av dsvOZOV 3ot- 
Xdvov ficctfaV) while in Zech xi. 2, it is 
OP'osg rqg Bao"av/r/r3o;. Besides the 
passages already quoted, Allon occurs only 
in Gen. xxxv. 8 ; Isa. vi. 13 ; xliv. 14; 
Ezek. xx vii. 6; Hos. iv. 13; Amos ii. 9. 
As Amos lived in the country of the oaks 
(Tekoah), the expression, "he was strong 
as the oaks " comes naturally from him. 
The Alah seems the terebinth, and corres- 
ponds with the Butm of the Arabs. The 
Chaldee also has Betam, the terebinth. 
Alah occurs Gen. xxxv. 4; Judges vi. 11, 
19; 2 Sam. xviii. 9, 10, 14; 1 Kings xiii. 
14; 1 Chron. x. 12; Isa. i. 30; vi. 13; 
Ezek. vi. 13 ; Hos. iv. 13. It is given 
Elah in 1 Sam. xvii. 2, 19 ; xxi. 9. 

Banias, 452, 457... Inscriptions, 453 

...Castle, 454.. .Stream, 454. 
Barefoot, 133. 
The Hebrew word only occurs 

five times in Scripture :— 2 Sam. xv. 30 ; 
Isa. xx. 2, 3, 4 ; Jer. ii. 25. Blayney 
ingeniously conjectures that the last of 
these expressions refers to the previous 
prophecy in Isaiah, and means " spare 
thy foot these calamities." May there not 
be a reference also to Israel in the desert, 
whose shoes waxed not old, and whose 
feet swelled not ? "When God was bring- 
ing them into his land, he kept them so 
carefully, that not even their sandals 
were overlooked. When he casts them 
out, he strips them even of these. This 
discalceation was originally the sign of 
reverence in drawing near to God; after- 
wards it was used as the sign also of sor- 
row. Besides Braunius, referred to in the 
text, see Lamy's Apparatus Biblicus, b. 1, 
ch. 14. 

Beersheba. l...Its bed and banks, 
2.. .Wells, 6, 7.. .Troughs, G... 
Abraham's and Isaac's Well, 



INDEX. 



533 



7, 8.. .Pottery, 9.. .Ruins, 11, 
14. . .Desolation, 16. . .1* estora- 
tion of the land, 17. 
Besides the works noticed in the text, 
there is a good description of Eeersheba in 
Borrer's Journey from. Naples to Jerusa- 
lem (1843, p. 379-382).- Boner was here 
more than a month later than we, and 
saw "anemones, the pheasant's eye, and 
dwarf thistles, pink and yellow," 381. 
Eusebius calls it rethsamaie ; Jerome, 
Bersabee ; the Roman notitia, Lerasaba 
(where the Dalmatian horse - regiment 
was stationed; ; Josephus, Baisoubai 
Ttolmey, Zamma, giving as lat. and long., 
64.50 and 31.15. Behind quotes William 
of Tyre as referring to Beersheba under 
the name of" Bethgabril'' (vol.ii p. 621;; 
but Bethgabril (house of Gabrael) was an- 
other namefor Betogabra or Eleut 1 1 eropolis. 
(See Excerpta ex Abulfeda, p. 42, where 
it is called Beth-Gabriel; and Schulten>>' 
Index Geogr., under Beit-jibrin;. it is 
now known as Bir-es-Seba. 

Bees, 150... Beehives, 261. 

Beita, 364. 

Beit-Eba, 376. 

Beit-jalah, 179, 182. 

Had it been possible to connect " Gal- 
lim" or " the daughter of Gallim"' (Bath- 
Gallim (Isa. x. 30), with any pait south 
of Jerusalem, one would have been in- 
clined to say that Beit-jalah was Bath- 
Gallim. Or, if that be not possible, one is 
led to ask, is it not the Gal em of the 
Septuagint in Josh. xv. GO ? Some of the 
early travellers seem to have supposed 
Beit-jalah the same as Bethulia, in name 
at least, though not in locality, while 
others gave the name of Bethulia to the 
Erank mountain (Felix Fabri, vol. ii. p. 
336). The name by which all the old tra- 
vellers know it, is BootesheUah (Maundrel, 
p. 459, Bonn's ed.), or Boticella (A' an Eg- 
mond, vol. i p. 363). This may be be- 
cause it was supposed to be "the hill 
llachilah (1 Sam. xxiii. 19), though Eugene 
Roger makes this to be the Frank moun- 
tain, and calls it le Moni-Achille (La terre 
Saincte, p. 177). Radzivil calls it Bethagil, 
and mentions the legend of its being fatal 
to all Moslems who remain in it above two 
days. He calls it a " Maronite" village, and 
says it was the place where the angel of 
the Lord smote the Assyrians. In that 
curious little octavo published in 1611, 
called " a true and strange discourse of 
the travailes of two English pilgrims," and 
by Henry Timberlake, we read of a place 
which must be Beitjalah, " Some two 
miles from this tomb (Rachel's), is a town 
in the same field called Bethesula, the in- 
habitants whereof are all Christians,"" p. 



18. Beitjalah is sometimes supposed to 
be the Zelzah or Zelah of Scripture. This 
is, as I have elsewhere said, doubtful. 
There is no proof that this is the hill of 
Hachilah, as early tradition seems to have 
thought,nor theBethalla of Jerome,nor the 
Bcr,day7.a of Eusebius. They speak of 
it as in the tribe of Benjamin, and dis- 
tinguish it from two others of the name 
of Bethagla. Bonfrerius is so puzzled 
with this that he suggests Bethel as the 
place meant. They also mention a Beth- 
agla in the tribe of Judah, ten miles from 
Eleufheropolis, on the way to Gaza. This 
last seems to correspond with Eglon (Josh, 
x. 34, 36, xv. 39), which is likely to be 
the modern Ajlan. But as Eusebius and 
Jerome are quite explicit in placing an 
Eglon (as well as an Adullam) ten miles 
east of Eleufheropolis, this position would 
correspond nearly to the modern Beit- 
Ula. 

The earlier writers hold Beit-jalah to be 
Bezeth or Bezec. Felix Fabri calls it the 
former, and speaks of it as the place re. 
ferred to in Judges i. 4, 5. He calls it, 
"villa magna et populosa," wholly in- 
habited by Christians, the place of the 
best wine* he had ever tasted (vol. ii. p. 
182). Adrichomius quoting Brocard and 
Breidenbach, gives the same account. 
George Sandys also speaks of it (p. 182), 
and Reland refers to him (vol. ii. p. 663), 
as if giving the native name, which he is 
not doing. Eugene Roger is the most ex- 
plicit. He gives the name as ISezech, a 
league west of Bethlehem, remarkable for 
its wine, its olives, and figs, and adds, that 
the inhabitants " appellent Beth Jala, 
d'autres le nomment Bouticelle" (p. 181). 
I do not know the grounds on which Beth- 
jalah is thus identified with Bezek. I 
should be more inclined to identify it with 
the Bezedel of Josephus (J. W. 3, 2, 3), 
which is spoken of very indefinitely, but 
must have been somewhere between Ash- 
kalon and Jerusalem, but probably near 
the latter, as the Jews were flying before 
the Romans to Jerusalem, and being over- 
taken, had found refuge in " a certain 
strong tower belonging to a village called 
Bezedel." Is Besech then the original 
name. Bezedel the next, and Beit-jalah 
the last ? Lusignan calls it Bedgialah 
(voyage, vol. i. p. 199), but speaks of it as 
the ancient Rama. It is jjossible that it 
may be the Galem of the Septuagint, 
noted above. 

Beit-Uzin, 376. 

Belun, Jebel, at Hebron, 84. 

Bethany. 131, 139, 230, 309, 336, 

337. 

flie meaning is disputed. It may be 



534 



INDEX. 



the •' house of dates/' or the " house of 
affliction," or " poverty." Lightfoot shews 
from the Talmud that one part of Olivet 
was called Bethany, a part noted for dates 
and palms, so that it was from Bethany 
that the palm-branches came with which 
the multitude accompanied the Lord. He 
affirms also., that Bethphage was another 
district of Olivet, noted for its green figs. 
The place where these two places met was 
a Sabbath-day's journey from Jerusalem. 
There would be a sign-post there to mark 
the limit of such a journey. The place 
-where the direct and circuitous road met 
(the bivium or afJLOodog), was one of 
these signposts, where the common road 
cut the Sabbatica via. (Yet it would ap 
pear from Luke xix. 29, Mark xi. 1, that 
Bethphage was farther east than Bethany, 
and so not on Olivet). Another place on 
Olivet is mentioned, 1 Mace. xii. 37, Cha- 
phenatha,- and as Kephanioth is a Talmu- 
dical word for bad palms or dates (which 
do not ripen), we have, adjoining each 
other, the place of dates, the place of green 
figs, the place of unripe dates. That there 
vf ere palms on Olivet we know from Nell, 
viii. 15. But the Jews say that there were 
two cedars also, and under them booths 
for selling the articles needed for temple 
purification, especially pigeons for the 
women. Here Lightfoot thinks was " the 
village over against you." These booths 
were destroyed three years before the 
destruction of the temple. The booth- 
keepers were called sons of Chenaan or 
Jochanan; and their booths were called 
the booths of Betheno, which looks like 
Bethany. 

Bethel, 344... Its stones, 345, 349. 

Now Beitin; or rather Beitin is the re- 
presentative of Btthaven, which though 
adjoining to Bethel, was probably distinct 
from it. Bethel, I suspect, occurs in three 
passages, where our version gives " the 
house of God." Judges xx. 18, " thev went 
up to Bethel and asked counsel of "God;" 
xx. 26, " the people went up and came 
unto Bethel and wept," and xx. 31, " of 
which one goeth up to Bethel and the 
other to Gibeah." The Sept. gives Bethel ; 
also Josephus, who says, " they came to 
Bethel, a city which was near their camp" 
(Antiq. v. 2, 10). They might consult 
God and fast at Bethel, though the taber- 
nacle was at Shiloh. 

Beth-haccerem. Sec Frank Moun- 
tain. 

It is probable that Beth-Haccerem, Hero- 
dium, and the Frank mountain, are the 
same. See Narrative of Mission to the 
Jews, p. 150, 185; Wilson's Land of the 
Bible, vol. p. 396. The Karem of the Sept 



in Josh. xv. 60, may perhaps be Beth- 
haccerem and not Ain Karem. 

Bethlehem, 108... Convent, 108... 
Plain, 113, 177, 179. 

In the Sept. /3?j0Xss/j6 and ^a/^AK ( (i. 
In the Apocryphal books, sometimes j37}d- 
KsjULO, or jSridXuj&a The Arabic is Beit- 
Lacham. It means the house or town of 
bread. It was called originally Ephratah, 
the fruitful (the Chabrata of Jerome), or 
rather, I suspect, that Ephratah was the 
old and original town hard by, which Was 
afterwards removed to its present site and 
called Bethlehem. It is about six miles 
from Jerusalem. The full notices and de- 
scriptions given of it by Jerome and the 
early writers, and by Adamnanus and later 
writers, down to the present age, render 
fuller reference unnecessary. See R eland, 
vol. ii. p. 642. See also Bynaeus de Natali 
Jesu Chrisri, p. 460-463, who gives various 
quotations from Justin Martyr, Origen, 
Eusebius, and also from the Rabbies re- 
specting it. He has a long and curious 
dissertation as to the stable, and the man- 
ger, and the inn, (p. 356-363). One is 
surprised to see the amount of learning 
which has been expended on these words 
by Salmasius, Casaubon, Schultetus, Hein- 
sius, and others. 
Bethsaida, 416, 417, 441. 

That Bethsaida was near Capernaum, 
Epiphanius tells us, — these two places were 
0V [AG&XPCtV from each other. Josephus 
says it was in Lower Gaulonitis, sv 77] 

TtarCd Tav\avi7i7tri, and so beyond 
Jordan ; and called Julias by the tetrarch 
Philip, from Julia the daughter of Caesar. 
The New Testament seems to say that 
Bethsaida was in Galilee (John xii. 21), 
and four of the disciples were from Beth- 
saida, yet are called Galileans. From this 
it appears that there were two places of 
that name, or one city on opposite banks 
of the Jordan, the western half of which 
retained the name of Bethsaida, the eastern 
took Julias. 

Bethulia, 384. 

Bir Aruach, the well of souls, 198. 
Bireh el, 343..." Well," the ancient 
Beeroth, 349. 
Eusebius and Jerome give it as in the 
seventh mile from Jerusalem, under the 
hill Gabaon. 

Bitttr, 178. 

Old travellers give the name of Bethyr 
to the neighbourhood ot Solomon's gar- 



INDEX. 



535 



dens (Fabri, vol. ii. 183). Fabri gives a 
full description of them. But the Rabbies 
say, " west of Jerusalem, three hours south, 
stands Bether." — Zanz. 
Blood, of sacrifices, 194... avenger 
of, 411. 

Broth, St Peter's, 153. 

The Mahommedans have a similar tra- 
dition respecting El-Khudr (St George). 
" El-Khudr prayed every Friday in five 
mosques, also every Friday he ate nothing 
except two mouthfuls of turnips and gar - 
lic, and drank once from Zimzim, and once 
fiom the well of Solomon in Jerusalem, 
called the well of leaves, and washed in 
the fountain of Siloam," (Jalal Addin's 
Hist, of Temple, p. 127, 128). Dr Pusey 
has overlooked this. So has the author or 
compiler of the Lyra Sanctorum, (pub- 
lished by Masters in 1850) in his lyric on 
the " hero-saint," (p. 76, 78). Southwell, 
the Jesuit Priest, in his long melancholy 
poem called " St Peter's Complaint," does 
not mention the broth, though he makes 
the apostle say 

Prone look, crossed arms, bent knee, and eon- 
trite heart, 

Deep sighs, thick sobs, dewed eyes, and prostrate 
prayers, &c. 

Nor in his smaller poems, " St Peter's 
afflicted mind " and " St Peter's remorse," 
does he allude to the broth or the lentiles. 
The last verse of this last poem is too ex- 
cellent to be passed over. 

Confirm thy former deed, 

Reform what is denied ; 
I was, I am, I will remain 

Thy charge, thy choice, thy child. 

The hymns of the breviary in which the 
apostle is worshipped, do not allude to the 
broth, though they take up most of his life, 
and have really some fine stanzas ; witness 
the following : 

Ter confessus, ter negatum, 

Gregem pascis ter donatum, 

Vita, verho. precious. 
(Daniel's Thes. Hymnol., vol. ii p. 2*25). 

Keble in his hymn on St Peter's day, (not 
unlike the above, " thou thrice denied, 
yet thrice beloved,") does not celebrate 
the lentile-penance. 

Burak, el, 97. 

Carmel, 78 

A city of Judah, meaning a fruitful 
field. In Jerome's time it was a Roman 
garrison, ten miles east of Hebron. 

Carmel, 475, (the Hill). 

"Fruitful." The excellency of Car- 
mel," (Isa xxxv. 2), means, " that which 
made Carmel splendid," its fruitful and 
fragrant exuberance. The word is one 



of those that generally take the article, 
" the Carmel," or the " mount of the Car- 
mel," or garden. Pythagoras is said to 
have visited it, and been greatly delighted 
with it. — Jamblichus, quoted bv Simon ; 
Onomast, 89. 

Capernaum, not at Khan Minveli, 

438... fountain of, 438, 439. 
Caphar, or tribute, 41. 

Cherith, 307, 308. 

It signifies cutting off ; perhaps from 
some natural feature or property about it 
It was formerly placed eatt of Jordan. I 
do not know how it has in modern times 
been transported to the west. Jerome 
calls it Chorath, and Eusebius yppqcL. 
Both unite in setting it beyond Jordan. 
" Torrens trans Jordanem," (Jer.), yti- 
fjbaooovg eirexs/va tgZ Joa^avov, 
(Euseb.) 

Chinnereth. See Tiberias. 

The common derivation of the name is 
from the Hebrew word JTH^Dj harp, 
because the lake seems to take the form 
of a harp. But though the lake is not 
unlike the shape of the modern harp, it is 
totally unlike that of the ancient instru- 
ment or kinur, as may be seen by con- 
sulting the article Harp in Kitto's Cyclo- 
pedia. As in the case of the Sea of Sodom 
and other Seas, the town gave its name to 
the lake, not the lake to the town. Chin- 
nereth may have been the city of the 
harp, and from it the lake took its name. 
Jerome interprets it, and gives as a tradi- 
tion in his day, that Chinnereth was the 
original city on the ruins of which Tibe- 
rias was built. But the Jews say that 
liakkoth was Tiberias. 

Chorazin, 427. 

It is now a desert, says Jerome, two 
miles from Capernaum, " in secundo la 
pide," which means less than two miles. 

Cotton-cave, 313... entrance, 314.., 
interior. 315. 
This is the native name for the quarries 
under Jerusalem. Why it gets this name 
I do not know. The word cotton is Arabic, 
and is the woid used in the Arabic trans- 
lation of " fine linen," (Exod. xxviii. 39, 
&c) See Braunius de vestifu Pacerdotum 
I/ebraeorum,? 96. This author thus gives a 
sentence of Maimonides, '"lanavitis Arabice 
dicitur coton." He states further on that 
the word is also Chaldee. p^lp" nihil 
aliud esse quam Chaldceorum ]^^D et 
Kitan et Kitna, quod denofat 



INDEX. 



linum," ib. p. 98. The word cotton-cave 
has a modern sound about it; but the 
above statement will shew that it may be 
very ancient, though its meaning has not 
been discovered. 

Cuckoo, 304. 

Cyclamen, 29, 47, 56, &c. 

Cypress. See Lusignan's Travels, 
vol. ii. p. 87. 

Dan, 57, 164, 458. 

David, Tomb of, 141. 

Called Nebi-Daiid, see Benjamin of Tu- 
dela, vol. i. p. 74. 

Dead Sea, 274... Views of, 276... 
Margin of, 277... Its depres- 
sion, 279.. .Buoyancy, 280, 281. 
Deraj-Um ed, 164. See Appendix, 
En-Rogel. 
The word means mother of steps, steps 
descending to the fountain ; just as the 
mountain near the Red Sea is called 
Abu-ed-deraj, father of steps, because of 
its ascending steps. 

Derderah, 449, 461. 
Dhahariyah, 5, 23... Ascent to, 31, 
32... Olives, 33. ..Quarantine, 
33.. .Castle, 34... Hills, 35... 
Flocks, 37.. .Sheikh, 37, 43... 
Extortion, 38... Water, 41,., 
Departure from, 42, 43. 
The word is said to mean ''noon:'' at 
least dheher, or dhohr, or dhahar, or doohr 
(for it is spelt in all these ways by Arabic 
scholars) means noon. See Dictionaire 
Francais - Arabe et Arabe-r rancais, par 
Helot, and Dr Kayafs Eastern Travellers' 
Interpreter. But general similarities such 
as the above, unless confirmed by history, 
are not proofs of the true origin of the 
name. Were they so, we might make 
Jordan Jor and Ban, as the old writers 
did, and claim Edinburgh as a relic of 
Eden. At Dhahariyah travellers may ex- 
pect incivility and imposition ; and we 
were glad that we escaped with so little. 
Dr Wilson gives his experience (vol. i. p. 
349-355), and Borrer his (Journey from 
Naples to Jerusalem, p. 387-391), 
Dilbeh-ed, 59. 

D if ne, 459. 

This is likely, not only to be the Daphne 
of Josephus, but the Ziphron of Num. 
xxxiv. 9, which the Sept. gives as Deph- 
ronah. If this seem 10 make the border 
line of the land run too far south, let us 



remember that the narrative in Joshua 
xix. 47, concerning the expedi:ion of the 
Children of D m, implies that the ori- 
ginal line had kept south of Laish, and 
that Laish was something added to the 
land. Ziphron is not likely to be the 
same as the Zibrain of Ezek xlvii. 16, 17. 
as Rosenmuller assumes (Bibl Geo^r. vol, 
ii. p. 267) still less is it likely to be Zephy- 
rium in Cilicia, as Jerome supposes (Com- 
ment, on Ezek. xlvii. 15). Dr Wilson had 
pointed out Dufneh, or Difneh, as the 
Dafne of Josephus, before Van de Yelde 
visited it. (Lands of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 
173 ; Syria and Palestine, vol. ii. p 415). 

Dumah, 54, 60.. .It means "silence." 

Duh 304 

-There is no doubt that the well here has 
inherited the name of the little fort, byjo - 
POJ/JjdriOV, of which mention is made in 
1 Mace. xvi. 15. It is elsewhere called 
A&XOS, and by Josephus, AayW!/(An- 
tiq., xiii. 8, 1. The word is from the 
Chaldeeand Syriac, p^, to watch, which 
corresponds with the Hebrew p^*T, a 

watch-tower, or fort, or both. See 2 
Kings xxv. 1 ; Jer. lii. 4. " Unde et de- 
scendit dozr if insidise" (Sim. Onorn., N 
T.,p. 55. 
Dura, 54. 

East, 74. 

It is of some consequence to settle pre- 
cisely the meaning of some of the Hebrew 
terms relating to the east and west, as 
they bear upon the topography of Pales- 
tine. There are three expressions for east 
in Hebrew :—(!)• rT"UD misragh, which 

T ; * 

occurs seventy three times, always denot- 
ing the east, or sunrising, from the verb 
to arise, (It is the same as the Arabic 
Sharakh, whence Saracen, man of the 
east. (2). (3*"7p kadi.ni, which occurs in 
• 't 

several forms, meaning east, or that which 
is in front, supposing (as the easterns did) 
that, in calculating directions of places, 
you looked to the sunrise. It signified 
also ancient or aforetime ', the Hebrews 
considering past ages to be before, not be- 
hind. (3). jyjE) pctnim, or rather, with 

the preposition, 0*33"^ Tllis ex P res - 

• T - 

sion is not always so definite as the others, 
because it is only when used geographic 
cally that it means east. Jn very many 



tNI)E2L 



cases it merely means before, or over 
against. C. B. Michaelis, in a treatise 
published in 1735, has taken up this point 
fully. The treatise is not a long one, and 
is worth the attention of Hebrew topo- 
graphers. Gesenius refers to it in his 
Lexicon. Michaelis shews that, when 
speaking of the relative geographical 
position of places, we are always supposed 
to be looking eastward; and hence, when 
the expression panim or alpanim occurs 
in reference to a place, it must always 
mean east. This is the more to be taken 
notice of, because our translators have 
generally given the sense " before." Gen. 
xxiii. 17, "Machpelah, which is before 
Mamre," i. e. eastward of Mamre. Gen. 
xxv. 18, " Shur that is before Egypt," i. e. 
eastward of it. Gen. xxxiii. 18, "Jacob 
pitched his tent before the city," i. e. east- 
ward of Shalein, which was probably east- 
ward of Shechem, as Jacob, in journeying 
from Peniel and Succoth, came first to 
Shalem. This would be just somewhere 
about the present Jacob's well and tomb 
of Joseph. Exod. xiv. 2, ''Encamp before 
Pihahiroth (east), over against (east) of 
Baal Zephon." Num. xxi. 11, "the wil- 
derness which is before Moab" (i. e.), east- 
ward. Num. xxi. 20, " Pisgah, which 
looketh toward Jeshimon," literally, "which 
is upon the face of," i. e eastward. Num. 
xxxiii. 47, " Mountains of Abarim, before 
Nebo," i. e. eastward of it. Deut. xxxiv. 
1, " The top of Pisgah, which is over 
against Jericho," i e. eastward of it. De 
Saulcy's attempts to prove Pisgah to be 
somewhere south of Jericho and west of 
Jordan, are disposed of by this definite 
rendering of the words. Josh. vii. 5, 
" They chased them from before the gate 
even unto Shebarim," i. e. eastward of the 
gate, proving that Shebarim must have 
lain to the east of Ai. Josh. xiii. 3, 
" Sihor, which is before Egypt," i. e. east- 
ward of it. Josh. xiii. 25, " Aroer that is 
before Rabbah," eastward of it, in distinc- 
tion from the Aroer, which lies south of 
it, "on the bank of the river Arnon " 
(Josh. xiii. 9). 

Ebal, 364, 368... Height of, 369... 

Appearance of, 371, 376. 
Eginsysinia, or Ijnisinia, 380. 

Eleutheropolis, 27. 

The many measurements given by Euse- 
bius and Jerome (starting from this) fix 
very nearly the site of this famous town. 
They centre in Beit-Jibrin or Beit-Gibrael. 
Emmaus, 327. 

There is great confusion in all the early 
writers as to this place. They make it to 
be Nicopolis (twenty miles from Jerusa- 



lem), yet they quote Luke's statement of 
the 60 stadia. Felix Fabri, however, 
mentions particularly his visit to Emmaus, 
and, though he calls it Nicopolis, he 
speaks of coming to it after leaving Sylo 
(Nebi-Semwil), on his way to Jerusalem ; 
somewhere near the "valley of the Tere- 
binth," where David slew Goliath (vol. i. 
p. 234, 235). The Emmaus of Luke haa 
not yet been discovered That it is Ka« 
beibi is conjecture ; that it can be Nicopo- 
lis (now Amwas), is impossible. The 
grounds on which Dr Robinson tries to 
shew that it may be this latter, are not 
safe. Some MSS. do read one hundred 
and sixty, instead of sixty stadia. These 
are what Dr Robinson calls "good manu- 
scripts" (vol. iii. p. 150), and written 
(some of them, at least) in Palestine, which 
he thinks a recommendation. But the 
amount of evidence in favour of the re- 
ceived reading is so preponderating and 
decisive, that to set it aside would be to 
reject all the established rules of criticism, 
and to throw loose the whole text of the 
New Testament. So far as probabilities 
are concerned, the weight of authority 
must be given to those manuscripts writ- 
ten out of Palestine ; for it is well known 
that a copyist is safest when he has no 
preconceived ideas or information to go 
upon, but has simply to copy what is be- 
fore him. In that case he attempts no 
emendation voluntarily, and he is not 
likely to fall into it involuntarily. The 
Palestine transcribers, knowing the iden- 
tity between Nicopolis and a certain Em- 
maus, knowing, also, the ecclesiastical 
tradition which identified this with the 
Emmaus of Luke, and knowing well that 
Nicopolis was not sixty, but one hundred 
and sixty stadia from Jerusalem, seem to 
have emended the text according to their 
own knowledge of localities; for it is quite 
clear that the one hundred and sixty is a 
designed alteration, not a random error. 
So that Dr Robinson's argument resting on 
the Palestine copyists has no force, save 
against himself. The manuscripts on 
which he relies may be " good," but they 
are not the best. The best, the most nume- 
rous, and the least likely to contain the 
corrections of transcribers, are on the 
other side. Indeed no critic has ever 
raised a doubt as to this 

The testimony of ^osephus is the same 
as that of the evangelist, as to Emmaus 
being sixty stadia from Jerusalem (Jewish 
War, vii. 6, 6). This is the unquestionable 
reading of the passage, according to the 
best editions of Josephus. No manuscript 
or copy reads one hundred and sixty; but 
some manuscripts and Latin versions read 
thirty instead of sixty; and therefore Dr 
Robinson ealis sixty a '* doubtful reading." 



538 



INDEX. 



He makes the following statement on the 
point : — " Since, as is well known, the 
works of Josephus were copied in a later 
age, almost exclusively by Christian tran- 
scribers, this passage would naturally be 
conformed to the current reading in Luke 
(of course then the current reading must 
have been sixty, not a hundred and sixty); 
while it is also true, that several manu- 
scripts of Josephus still read here thirty 
stadia. This, at least, shews the reading 
to be variable (!), and therefore doubt- 
ful (!),- so that it can have no weight in 
determining the text of the New Testa- 
ment (!). Indeed, the original may just 
as well have been one hundred and sixty." 
(!) (vol. iii. p. 149). If the above state- 
ment is a correct one, then the whole text 
of the historian and of the New Testament 
is uncertain.* Conjecture, not evidence, is 
to rule its formation. 

The difficulty of the distance seems quite 
insuperable, if Emmaus were twenty miles 
from Jerusalem, as Nicopolis is. Forty 
miles, in our own cool clime, over smooth 
roads, would be hard enough work, much 
more in that land of heat and mountain - 
paths. It was " towards evening " when 
the disciples reaehed Emmaus, and the day 
was far spent. They sat down to their 
evening meal, which would occupy some 
time, and then afterwards they started for 
Jerusalem, — not sooner, certainly, then 
seven o'clock. Twenty miles after seven 
o'clock I Allowing them four miles an 
hour, which few could accomplish in that 
land, especially after a previous walk of 
twenty miles, they would reach Jerusalem 
about twelve at night; and there they 
found the eleven assembled. Dr Robinson 
allows that they must have taken five 
hours; only he makes them start at sis 
and arrive at eleven. " It was evidently 
late," says Dr R., referring to the meeting 
in the upper room. It was evidently even- 
ing, because the evangelist says so: but 
that it was late, as late as eleven or twelve 
o'clock, is not so evident ; nor, indeed, by 
any means likely. No doubt Jerome and 
Eusebius identified Nicopolis with the 
Emmaus of Luke. But this is merely 
their opinion. When they speak of places 
or distances, we trust them fully; but 
when they reason from these facts, we are 
at liberty to differ, ft is remarkable that, 
while Jerome repeatedly affirms the above 
identity, he gives us, in his Commentary 
upon, or rather rendering of the Gospel of 
Luke, the common reading of sixty stadia. 

* In a note at this place, Dr Robinson refers to 
three other inaccuracies of the New Testament ; 
and without supposing it possible that thjie 
could -be an explanation, he simply says, "a 
transcriber probably mistook," &c. This pi. ices 
the whole Scripture in jeopardy. 



And it is curious to find the pilgrim tra- 
vellers of after ages maintaining the same 
identity, yet also giving the same distance 
of sixty. 

In a letter which I received lately from 
Dr Tregelles, there is the following clear 
statement of the case. " In Luke xxiv. 13 
the evidence in favour of the received read- 
ing is thoroughly preponderating. Against 
it there is the reading 160 found in two 
very ancient MSS. N, (certain fragments 
at Vienna), in which, however, the read- 
ing is corrected to the common one ; and 
II, certain ancient fragments of palimp- 
sest obtained by Tischendorf, but unused 
as yet in any Greek text ; in one more re- 
cent uncial MS. K, a prima manu, and in 
four recent copies. The evidence for 160 
stands, then, thus : II 

N, a prima manu. 

K 

and four recent copies of versions; one 
revised copy of the old Latin; a MS. of 
the later Syriac version; the Jerusalem 
Syriac Lectionary ; the Armenian. 

For the common reading 60 we have A. 
B. D. MSS. of the most ancient class. L 
X A later uncials, which in text often 
accord with the most ancient. 

1, 33, 69, later MSS., which are ancient 
in text. E F G H M S U V T A, being 
all the other uncial copies. Also all other 
recent MSS. so far as is known, except 
four. These would appear to amount to 
several hundreds. Also N and K men- 
tioned above as corrected. The versions 
are as follows : The old Latin, in many 
copies, revised and unrevised The Vul- 
gate. The Curetonian Syriac (the oldest 
form). The Peshito Syriac. The later 
Syriac, in the text. The Memphitic (alias 
Coptic). The Thebaic (alias Sahidic). 
The Ethiopic. Also the Arabic and Sla- 
vonic versions, which, however, are too 
recent to be of much worth as witnesses. 

Thus the evidence is most prepondera- 
ting for the 60 stadia. But even if the 
testimony had been about equal, the com- 
mon reading would be preferable, as 160 
has so evidently originated in an attempt 
at correction, to make the narrative suit 
that Emmaus which was well known. 

The use that I have been accustomed 
to make of the fact of St Luke having 
stated how far Emmaus is from Jerusa- 
lem is this : it affords an instance of the 
wisdom of the Holy Spirit, manifest in 
p utieulars which we might be disposed to 
regard as very trivial. It might be said, 
why did Luke need to be guided to state 
this as a fact ? And what spiritual teach- 



INDEX. 



ing do we gain thereby ? Now, supposing 
that this had not been added, the Em- 
maus would have been thought to be the 
well-known city of that name, instead of 
one much nearer to Jerusalem. In that 
case, what difficulties might not have been 
raised from the transactions recorded. 
At evening our Lord reaches Emmaus with 
the disciples, where they know him, and 
he disappears. They return to Jerusalem, 
and they find the disciples assembled. 
But this would be near midnight if they 
had to walk back twenty miles. From 
all such difficulties we are relieved by 
what may be called the incidental men- 
tion of the distance of this Emmaus. I 
ought to mention that one Latin copy has 
septem, instead of sexaginta, which seems 
to have sprung from turning the stadia 
into Roman miles." 

Endor, 390. 

The " fountain of habitation." North of 
little Hermon. "In tribe Manasseh . . 
juxta Nairn . . . circa Scythopolim." — 
Jerome. 

Enshemesh, 309..." Fountain of the 
Sun." Is it the fountain of 
the Apostles? 309. 

Eroge. See Appendix, Hinnom. 

Nothing is known concerning this 
mountain beyond the statement of Jose- 
phus, given in the text and notes. The 
termination ge or gai, along with the lo- 
cality, would almost lead us to connect it 
with Gihon, Har-Gihon, the "hill of Gi- 
hon," or at least with the word TV^i 

"breaking forth," from which Gihon 
comes. 

Esal Wady, p. 3. S.E. of Dead 
Sea. 

Esdraelon, 396. 

Esdraelon is just " Jezreel," the plain 
of Jezreel, Josh. xvi. 17 ; Judg. vi. 33 ; Hos. 
i. 5. In the Apocrypha it is called the 
great plain of Esdraelon, or simply the 
great plain, 1 Mace. xii. 49. It is called 
also the plain of Megiddo, from a city so 
called, 2 Chron. xxxv. 22; Zech. xii. 11, 
(from this comes Armageddon). In me- 
diaeval times it is said to have been called 
plain of Taba ; it is now called Merj Ibn- 
Amir, the meadow of Ibn-Amir. 

Eschol, 53, 62. 

" Cluster of grapes." Jerome makes it 
north ot Hebron, (Epitaph. Pauke). The 
Rabbies concur in this. 

Eshef, 3. 



A grove or kind of tree of the name of 
Eshel. May Wady Esal be the relic of 
Abraham's grove ? 

Eskrde, 62. 
The ancient Eshcol. 

Etam, or Etan, or Etham, Wady, 
99, 180. 

It seems to mean " a place of ravenous? 
birds," from ayit, (Greek azrbc 

or a/sroc,) an eagle. Yet the word ap- 
plies to Avild beasts as well as birds. See 
Bodiart' s Hierozoicon,\o\. i. p. 839; Jones' 
Proper Names of the Old Testament, p. 
119. Etam is given by the Sept. as the 
name of one of the cities of Judah near 
Bethlehem, (Josh. xv. 60). Josephusalso 
gives the name as the place of Solomon's 
gardens. 

The old Jewish writers say that it was 
in the way between Hebron and Jerusa- 
lem, and that from it water was brought 
in tubes to the great pool of Jerusalem, 
(Lightfoot, disquisitio Chorographica). 
These writers further tell us that this 
water was not brought into the city, but the 
temple. This shews that the fountain of 
Etam is that out of which Solomon's pools 
are filled, from which pools the aqueduct 
carried the water into the temple, as is 
quite visible to this day, though the water 
does not flow as it used to do. This cor- 
responds with the statement of Josephus, 
that Solomon's gardens were at a place 
called Etam. If these waters, as is likely, 
after supplying the temple, emptied them- 
selves by a conduit into the pool of Siloam, 
we see one reason why that pool is not so 
plenteous as in Jewish times, when Jose- 
phus described its abundance in language 
which will hardly apply to it now. We 
see the reason, also, why its water was so 
esteemed. It was, in great part, temple- 
water, and therefore in a manner sacred. 
As being brought from so long a distance, 
it might well be called d'TTSgraXfJ^SVOg, 
"sent," water coming on a special mis- 
sion, from "the rock of the field;" water 
coming from the same district from 
which the " Sent One " came. This was 
not the only source of Siloam, st'ill it 
was a great one. If so, it is plain that on 
those days when mere water than usual 
was needed in the temple, such as Sab- 
baths, less would pass into Siloam; and 
this may account for the Jewish tradition 
that Siloam ceased to flow on Sabbaths. 
There was a special process or apparatus, 
by which they stopped the great temple- 
conduit in the middle of the area, and 
made the water to well up and overflow 



540 



IXDEX. 



the pavement, so as to wash away the 
biood, and tilth, and stains. When this 
was going on, of course, Siloam would be 
low ; and possibly this discoloured water 
passed into one of the two great pools on 
the outside, which is described as being of 
a bloody colour, in the place near St 
Stephen's gate, now known as Bethesda. 

Eyub, Bir, 159, 160, 216. See 
Appendix, En RogeL 
The digging of this well is described 
thus by Jalal Addin ; though he does 
not say by whom it was done. " Another, 
speaking of the well, attributed to our 
Lord Eyub (peace be upon him), said, I 
have read that water being very scarce in 
the Holy City, men had recourse to this 
well. They sank it to the depths of 80 
cubits. ... In winter the water of 
this spring overflowed and inundated the 
surface in the lower parts of valleys, so 
that mills were turned by it, whereby 
flour was ground. Whenever they need- 
ed this fountain or the fountain of Siloam, 
they went down to the lower part of the 
well, when the water remained at a cer- 
tain height, and brought up with them 
great dams and pieces of wood, to block 
up the holes whereby the water effected 
its egress," &c., Jalal Addin. Afterwards 
there is mention made of the prophet 
Eyub, and a quotation from the Koran of 
one of his sayings is given ; but whether 
this is the Moslem Eyub, or the patri- 
archal Job, I cannot say ; and the Ma- 
hommedans are so skilful in confounding 
persons and dates, that it is often difficult 
to know of whom they are speaking. 
They make Joshua to be "the Son of 
Nun, the Son of Eyub? — Jalal Addin, 
p. 239. 

Fardus, el, 147...Fureidis, 147. 
Fellah, a peasant, fellahin, pea- 
sants, p. 5, 10. 
The Hebrew name for peasant is Ish- 
Saday, man of the field; or Obed-Adamah, 
servant of the ground ; or Ikkar, a digger 
(a^go^ ager) ; or Guv, a cutter or plongh- 
man. 

Fields, 62, 63, 234. 

Besides the fields of Kedron noticed in 
the text, there are the " fields of Anathoth" 
(1 Kings ii. 26), the fields of Heshbon" (Isa. 
xvi. 8), " the fields of Geba and Azmaveth" 
(Neh. xii. 29), " the meadows of Gibeah" 
(Judges xx. 33), the " fields of the city," 
i. e. Hebron (1 Chron. vi. 56), " the fields 
of the suburbs" (2 Chron. xxxi. 19), "the 
fields of Lachish" (Neh. xi. 30), 
Fig-tree, at Ain Sultan, 302. 

The Hebrew word is Tehnah, and the 



Arabic is Tin. As we did not see it in sum- 
mer, we could not judge of the breadth of 
its leaf in this its native clime, yet of all 
leaves it is the most suitable for sewing 
together into a covering garment (Gen. 
iii. 7) on account of its size. Nor could we 
sit down under the shade of the fig-tree, 
as Israel did in their bright days of peace 
(1 Kings iv. 25), and as they yet shall do in 
their brighter days to come (Mic. iv. 4) ; 
but we could easily conceive how this 
well-sized tree with its broad leaf, fitted to 
ward off the sun's rays yet to detain the 
breeze, would form a goodly shade, much 
better than the small-leaved olive. Had 
we seen it a few months hence, when some 
breeze was shaking it, we should have s-'een 
its "untimely figs" falling to the earth 
(Rev. vi 13), or a little farther on still, we 
should have seen its ripe figs dropping to 
the ground with their own ripeness, or with 
the slightest shaking of the bough, "all thy 
strongholds (addressed to Nineveh) are like 
fig-trees with the first ripe figs, if they be 
shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth 
of the eater" (Nah. iii. 12). The figs which 
we saw at Ain Sultan were those spoken 
of, Cant. ii. 13, " the fig-tree putteth forth 
her green figs." The word green fig is 
32) and occurs but once. The 70 trans- 
late it oXwOovg, grassus, ficus immatura. 
The word is the root of ficus and our 
Flocks, 28... Following the shep- 
herd, 37. 

Frank mountain, 139, 243. 

This remarkable hill, about seven miles 
south of Jerusalem, seems to be the an- 
cient Beth-Haccerem of Jeremiah and 
Nehemiah (Jer. vi. 1; Neh. iii. 14). Dr 
Robinson doubts this and writes, " Jerome 
says there was a village, Bethacharma, 
situated on a mountain between Tekoah 
and Jerusalem ; all this accords well enough 
with the position and character of the 
Frank mountain ; but it is too indefinite 
to warrant anything more than conjec- 
ture" (vol. i. 481). Considering the very 
prominent and striking character of this 
mountain, the statement of Jerome is not 
so indefinite. It is emphatically the moun- 
tain between Jerusalem and l ekoah ; and 
Jerome is quite express in saying, not that 
there was "a village Bethacharma," but 
that the village Bethacharem was between 
Jerusalem and Tekoah, " Thecuam qua3que 
viculum esse in monte situm, et duodecim 
millibus ab Hierosolymis separatum, quo- 
tidie oculis cernimus. Inter hos alius 
vicus est (he calls Tekoah viculus, but 
Bethhaccarem vicus,) qui lingua Syra et 
Hebracea DIDH JVH nominatur; et 
ipse in monte positus . . . Bethhaccarem 



INDEX. 



5il 



interpretatur villa vinese" (on Jcr. vi. 1). 
Felix Fabri gives us an account of his 
visit to it. He calls it Rama, but mentions 
that the Christians, likening it to the fort 
of Judith, called it also Bethulia, not be- 
lieving it to be Bethulia, but because of 
its strength (Evagat., vol. ii. p. 335. 336). 
He mentions very distinctly the history of 
its fortification by one of the Latin kings, 
and its defence against the Saracens. The 
Christians, he says, remained there thirty 
years (others say forty) till pestilence con- 
sumed them. There seems no reason to 
doubt this fragment of history, "and the 
opinion of Irby ami Mangles as to the im- 
possibility of its holding out, does not 
weigh against the distinct statements of 
authors f=o far back as 1483, though others 
have been silent. Dr Robinson speaks of 
Le Brun as the earliest who calls it the 
Frank mountain (1672). But Eugene Ro- 
ger, who published in 1646, calls it Bethli- 
el-Frangi c'est a dire Bethulie des Fran- 
cois.'' La Terre Saincte, p. 180. He men- 
tions that the Christians first held out for 
two years against " Sultan Soliman," when 
they surrendered; but again they held out 
for forty years. S^ffi, in 1678, calls it 
Monte de Francesi (Viaggio, p. 402). Van 
Egmond calls it "a craggy mountain com- 
monly known by the name of the Franks 
mountain" (Travels, vol. i. p. 368). Dr 
R. mentions Mariti (1760) as the first who 
gave the identity ot the Frank mountain 
with Herodium. But Lusignan, who tra- 
velled in 1754, gives a full statement upon 
this point, and mentions the tradition of 
the St Saba monks to this effect, (Travels, 
vol. ii. p. 106-109). 

Friday s gate shutting, 237. 

Fuller. See Appendix, Enrogel. 

See the account of fulling in ancient 
times in Smith's Greek and Roman Antiq., 
p. 551. It would appear that fullers were 
as much like modern washerwomen as 
fullers, the ancients generally not washing 
even their linen clothes at home. In the 
east travellers complain of the injury 
which their clothes invariably receive 
when given out to wash. This arises, I 
suppose, not from the soap or alkali, but 
from the process of beating and fulling, 
adopted by Egyptian and Syrian washers. 

Funeral, Jewish, 172, 173. See 
Tomb. 

Galilee, Sea of, 412... Moonlight on 
it, 412, 424... Sun rise on it. 
413... Sail on it, 414... Eastern 
side, 41 5... Storm on, 421... 
Sabbath at, 426, 



Garden, 105... King's, 161... Solo- 
mon's, 181. 
Heb. gan, or HH^I ffonnah or gin- 

nah, hence the name of the gate Gennath, 
the gate of the gardens. The word carries 
us back to the second chapter of Genesis, 
to Eden, and to the gcirden or " Paradise" 
planted in Eden, hence called the " garden 
of Eden." This was named not Adam's or 
man's garden, but specially " Jehovah's 
garden" (Gen. xiii. 10, Isa ii. 3), or "the 
garden of God" (Ezek. xxviii. 13), in which 
it would seem there were not only fruit- 
trees, but cedars (Ezek. xxxi 8). This 
garden was watered not by a fountain but 
by "a river" (Gen. ii. 10) ; just as Balaam 
compares Israel's tents to " gardens by 
the liver's side" (Num. xxiv. 6). We read 
of "gardens of herbs" (Deut. xi. 10) watered 
by the foot ; of " gardens of nuts" (Cant, 
vi. 11) into which Solomon "went down." 
Some kings are buried in gardens, or in a 
tomb like that of Joseph of Arimathea, 
adjoining a garden. Manasseh was not 
buried in the city of David, but " in the 
garden of his own house, in the garden of 
Uzzah" (2 Kings xxi. 18). Of Anion, 
Manasseh's son, it is also said, "he was 
buried in his sepulchre in the garden of 
Uzzah" (2 Kings xxi. 26). 

Gate, Golden, 204. 

As this is the gate through which tradi- 
tion says Messiah is to enter Jerusalem, I 
suppose it is the gate referred to by Kimchi 
as the gate hidden underground, where 
Messiah the son of Joseph is to rise (Lake- 
macheri Observ. Phil. vi. 112). 

Gedida, Ain el, 77. 

Perhaps it should be written Kedida or 
Kedita, " new." 

Genesaret, plain of, 436, 441. 

Gerar, 27. 

The word means " sojourning"' or " lodg- 
ing-place/' not because of Isaac " sojourn- 
ing" there, but because it was originally 
the great khan for travellers or Nomads. 
Jerome writes, "Regio trans Daroma 
(' VTTSP Euseb.) procul ab Eleutheropoli 
viginti millibus et quinque ad meridiem, 
erat olim terminus Chananaeorum ad 
australem plagam et civitas metropolis 
Palestine." Van de Velde gives a place 
called Um-el-Gerar three hours from Gaza, 
which corresponds with the site of the 
old Philistian capital (Syria and Pales- 
tine, vol. ii. p. 183)* 

Gerizim, now Jebel-ct-Tur, 
Height of, 369. 



542 



1JN BEX. 



Gethsemane, 129, 131, 169... By 
Moonlight. 174... Sabbath hi, 
255, 328-331. 
For the different interpretations of the 
word, see Simon's Onomast., T., p. 48, 
49 ; and especially Bucheri Antiq. Bib- 
licse, p. 658-660. *The " press of oil " is 
the common intei-pretation ; though some 
make it the "valley of oil," referring to 
Isa. xxviii. 1 (Grotius following Jerome). 
The plain round Samaria being there 
O'0ftt#"N\D> Geshemanim. Others 

• T I 

make it the " gardens of oil," contracting 
Gennoth into Geth. This is not at all 
unlikely, and in some respects preferable 
to the " press of oil," as 1S ou h T lIse d 

T 

in Scripture for a -wine press. Here, then, 
was Geth-semane, the oil, or olive-garden; 
above it was the oil-hill, the Mount of 
Olives; and close beside it was the olive- 
house, Bezetha. It is not unlikely that 
" the king's wine - presses " may have 
been here (Zech. xiv. 10) ; and Gittaim, 
the town mentioned in 2 Sam. iv. 3 and 
Neh. xi. 33, may have been the original 
of Gethsemane, for there seems to have 
been a village of Gethsemane, near which 
was the garden. "Was it in Gethsemane 
that Xehemiah saw the wine-treading on 
the Sabbath ? xiii. 15. The Greek gives us 
y^OJPiOV, — about the meaning of which 
critics have divided, some making it a 
village, others a farm, others & place. See 
the Discussions of Bynaeus on this word 
and on Gethsemane itself; De Morte Chris- 
ti, vol. ii. p. 71-73 ; Drusius on Matt, 
xxvi. 36 ; Erasmus and Capellus on the 
same passage. Jerome makes it to mean 
the valley of fatness, "vallis pinguedi- 
num," (De Nom. Hebr). He more than 
once refers to it, Comment on Isa. xxviii. 
1, 2, where he calls it Gessemanim, or 
Isa. lv. 1, 2, or Jer. xxxi. Jerome and 
Eusebius place it '• ad radices Montes 
Oliveti," and add that there was a church 
built upon the spot. Theophanes (a.d. 
683) mentions that an attempt was made 
to take the stones from this church to 
build "the temple of Mecca;" but that the 
Christians succeeded in preventing this, 
promising that Justinian should send 
other :-tones in their place (Behind' s Pa- 
lestine, vol. ii. p. 857). Felix Fabri men- 
tions more than one visit to the spot, 
which he speaks of as being covered with 
filth by the Saracens, lie mentions a 
church and a monastery as having once 
been there ; but speaks of only a few traces 
of the Avails remaining (vol. i. p. 379-3»l). 
He mentions, what I suppose is the Jewi^i 



as well as Christian tradition, that in the 
time of Christ, Gethsemane was "prasdium 
et villula Levitarum in quo pecora im- 
molanda in templo servabantur " (ib.). 
And, again, he writes thus, "per circui- 
tuni Jerusalem possidebant sacredotes ri- 
cutcs et praedia, unde Gethsemanl et Beth* 
phage et Xobe et Anathot fuerunt vicull 
sacerdotum, in quibus nutriebant pecora 
oblata pro primitiis sive pro decimis," 
(Evagatorium, vol. ii. p. 141). 

Ghawein, 35, 54. 

Gh6r, 284.. .Whirlwinds of, 285. 

A valley between two mountain-ranges. 
We may trace the origin of the word to 
the Hebrew expression, "-}j-pV) 7 Gi-har,— 

the valley of the mountain (Zech. xiv. 5). 
The context of the passage shews that it 
is of a valley, or plain, between mountains 
that the prophet speaks; and it is only in 
this verse that the word or words occur. 

Gibson, 261. 

" Hill " or " elevation." Is Gibeon the 
Gibbar of Ezra ii. 20, or do we find in Gib- 
bar the root of Beth-Gubrin, or Beit-jeb- 
rin ? Though the corresponding passage 
in Xehemiah reads Gibeon, Gibbar may 
be the real name. Gibeon has long been 
recognised in the modern El-Jib. The- 
venot, in his journey from Gaza to Jeru- 
salem, mentions Dgib as " the house of 
Samuel." See the tables given in ffasii 
regni Davidici et Solomonis descriptio 
geographica et historic a, Ac, p. 70. Ha- 
sius was mathematical professor at Wit- 
temberg, and published his folio in 1739. 
It contains a great many tables and maps, 
though not much of new information. 
Josephus calls it Gabao, and says it is 
fifty furlongs, or nearly six miles fiom 
Jerusalem (Jewish "War, ii, 19, 1) : though 
elsewhere he speaks of it as forty furlongs 
(Antiq. vii. 11, 7). 

Gihon, 136, 150, 164.. .Pool, 215. 
(See Appendix). 

Gilboa, 385. 

Now Jilbon, the place of "bubbling 
fountains." Several such fountains are 
not far off, such as Ain-Jalud, and the 
Ain at Jenin. The modern name Jelbon 
identifies the spot. To this neighbour- 
hood ecclesiastical tradition has trans- 
ferred the combat of David with Goliath, 
Antoninus Plancentinus speaks of David 
slaying the giant on Mount Gilboa. 

Gilgal, 292. 

Gins, or Genii, 68, 146. 
All eastern tales are full of the deeds of 



INDEX. 



543 



the gins and afrites. In India Gian-Bin- 
Gian is the Oberon or king cf fairies* 

Girza, 417. 

Godfrey, Sword of, 266. 

This sword is several times mentioned 
by old Writers. See de Waha's account of 
Godfrey. He speaks of its being laid up 
in " sepulcro Dominico " (p. 487). 

Grove, planted by Abraham, 3. 

Gypsies, Scottish, 18. 

Habrun, same as Ephron. See 
Kasr. 

Hacldlah See Beit-jalah and Ma- 
sada. 

It means probably dark; Simon gives 
obscuritas. J osephus mentions it, but with- 
out describing it (Antiq. vi. 13, 1). The 
name by which the old travellers knew 
this is Achila (Heidemanni Palestine, p. 
64), or Achilla (Adrichomius, p. 38). Both 
of these writers affirm that it was on this 
hill that Masada was afterwards built. 
Near it old writers place the tomb of 
Habakkuk, mentioned in the apocryphal 
supplement to Daniel. The tomb is said 
by Eusebius to be near Gabatha and 
Kela or Echela (see Onomast, also Re- 
land, vol. ii. p. 772). Both Jerome and 
Eusebius seem to make Keilah and Ha- 
chilah the same. History shews that they 
were not; and the names in Hebrew are 
totally unlike in their radicals. Sozomen 
in his History (vii. 29), quoted by Reland 
(vol. li. p. 69 8),mentions Kela and the tomb 
of Habakkuk, and a place Berathsatia ten 
stadia distant, where was the tomb of 
Micah. Voyage of " Bernard the Wise," 
Paris edition, p. 211 ; Bonn's Engl. Ed. 
p. 29 ; Radzivil's Hierosolymitana Pere- 
grinatio, p. 82. 

'Haifa, 475. 

Ephe, Hepha, Kepha, Kaiplies, all these 
names are given to it. See Schulten's 
Ind. Geogr. Chaifa, Reland, p. 699. Is this 
the Gaba of Josephus, which he says ad- 
joined Carmel (J. W. iii. 3, 1) ? He speaks 
of it as somewhere between Ptolemais and 
Casarea (J. W. ii. 18, 1) 

Rajlah, 294. 
Ancient Hoglah, signifying a partridge. 

Handbills or placards (Hebrew) 
on the walls of Jerusalem, 208. 
A specimen of these will be found in the 
Jewish Intelligencer, May 1856, p. 143- 

Hareth, Forest of, 149. 

Haramiyah, Ain-el, 337, 358. Said 



to mean "Robbers... The Spring, 
359. 

Hasbani, 449, 459. 

Hebron, 64. ..Quarantine, 66. ..Mos- 
que, 68... Minarets by Anti- 
quity, 69, 70.. .City ofRefuge, 
71...Machpelah, cave of, 72, 
89... Witness to resurrection, 
75 ... Burying-ground, 75... 
Mourners, 76... Jewish bury- 
ing-ground, 77... Wells, 77, 81, 
84 ...Abraham's oak, 83... 
Castle, 85... Manufactures, 91 
...Pool, 93. 
So much has been written about Hebron, 
that I need not extend this article. Wil- 
son, Kitto, Robinson, Van de Velde, and 
the " Scotch Deputation" will supply full 
information. It may have taken its name 
from Hebron the grandson of Caleb (1 
Chron. ii. 42). The names of the de- 
scendants of Judah given us in this 
chapter, correspond so much with the 
names of places in the tribe of Judah, that 
we conclude that these places got their 
names after the occupation of the land by 
Israel. These were Tekoah (24), Molid 
(29), Jether (32), Ziph (42 \ Maresha (42), 
Hebron (42), Tappuah (43), Maon (45), 
Bethzur (45), Manahethite (54), which last 
is evidently the Septuagint Manocho in 
Joshua xv. 60. Witsius supposes that it 
was at Hebron that Elizabeth and Zacha- 
rias dwelt (Works, vol. ii. p. 495). 

Heifer, Red, burning of, on Olivet, 
171. 

Hermon, now Jebel Esh-Sheikh, 
first view of, 363, 387, 402. 
Jerome speaks of Aerrhon as a region as 
well as a mountain. He says that his 
Hebrew teacher told him that the moun- 
tain of this name, "Paneadi imminere;" 
and he mentions that the " summer snows" 
of the mountain were carried to Tyre, 
" ob delitias." The Phoenicians called it 
Sanior, and the Amorites Sanir, accord- 
ing to his nomenclature. He speaks of a 
great temple on its top, opposite Paneas 
and Lebanon, for Pagan worship. One can 
hardly conceive of a temple on the top of 
Hermon, 10,000 feet high. Might not the 
site of the temple be the great shoulder of 
the mountain where the Kulat Banias 
stands at present — a most conspicuous ob- 
ject to the adjoining country. Eusebius 
gives A\>100P as the Phoenician name, and 
Avsp as the Amorite; his annotator sug- 



544 



INDEX. 



gests 2ag/wv and 2av2/s, Deut. iii. 9. 
Eusebius and Jerome give the name of 
Agad, AXyad, as situated at the foot of 
Hermon. This is conjectured to be the 
same as Baalgad, Balagad, Baalgath. 
Hermon, Little, 385, 389... Now 

Jebel ed-Duhi, 390 ... Seen 

from Nazareth, 401. 

Hesban, Wady, 291. 
Hiieh-el, Ruins of, 30. 
Hinnom, 159. 

Horbah, Desolation, 13, 14, 16, 

Latin, ruinae. The Arabic and Hebrew 
correspond. See Khurbeh. 

Hippos, 418. 

Hosn (Kalat), 418, 

Howarah, 364. 

Howarta, 364. 

Huleh-el, 446-448 ... Marshes and 
streams, 443... Plain, 450. 
The western margin of this lake seems 
to be that which is called " the plain of 
Asor" (I Mace. xi. G7). The Latin and 
Josephus shew that the reading Xasor is 
corrupt. (See Drusius and Grotius on 
the passage: Josephus Antiq. xiii. 5, 7). 
It took its name from the town Bazor, in 
the neighbourhood (Josh. xi. 1, xii. 19, xix. 
36), which Josephus says, lies over (or on 
the borders of) the lake Semechonitis 
(fcrggxl/ra/ (Antiq. y. 5, 1). The Tell- 
Khuraibeh which Robinson takes to be 
Hazor, lies nine or ten miles from the lake, 
with a range of hills between. In Tobit 
i. 2, there occurs this sentence, ''led cap- 
tive out of Thisbe, which is at the right 
hand of (south) Kadesh Naphtali (that this 
is the true reading, see Drusius on the 
passage, and Reland under Thisbe) in 
Galilee above Aser." This is evidently 
not the Thisbe of Gile id where Elijah was 
born, but some one in the northern border 
of Palestine, south of Kadesh and north of 
Hazor. Whether Wady Ashur mentioned 
by Kobinson (vol. iii. p. 57, 59, 61) be a 
remnant of Asor, I do not undertake to 
say. 

Ibnean. 449. 

Inscriptions, Hebrew, 256. 

Israel, deliverance of, 17... Expa- 
triation, of, 18, 19... Heirs of 
Palestine, 21. ..True tenantry, 
21, 22, 477, 480. 



Jacob's Well, 365-367. 

Bir Yakub is the native name. The place 
is noticed by almost every traveller. Xot 
very far from this was the ancient Sychar, 
perhaps not so far up as Nablus. An old 
traveller in 1600 thus writes of the well, 
" we came thither in good time for we were 
exceeding thirstie anddranke thereof libe- 
rally and freely. The water thereof goeth 
down very pleasantly like unto milke." 

Jaffa gate, 123, 140, 269. 

This is sometimes called also the Beth- 
lehem gate and the Hebron gate, because 
all comers from these places enter by this. 
There is little doubt that this was the 
ancient Fish-gate (2 Chron. xxxiii. 14), as 
all fish (which, of course, would come from 
Joppa and its neighbourhood) would be 
brought in by this gate. J erome expressly 
states this. Commenting on 2 Chron. 
xxxiii. 14, he says, " Circumdedit Ophel, 
ed est, instauravit aedificium Sanctis Sanc- 
torum, quod pro idolis construxerat. Ad 
occidentem Geon, id est a torrente Geon 
sedificare ccepit usque ad portarn piscium 
quae est porta de parte Joppen" (Qusest. 
Hebr. in Faralip.). Some have placed the 
fish-gate to the north, because they say 
fish from the lake of Galilee would come 
by the north. I hardly think that the fish- 
market of Jerusalem was supplied from 
Galilee. And if Neh. xiii. 16, as to the 
men of Tyre being the fishmerchants, be 
thought to prove this ; it must be re- 
membered that the men of Tyre would 
come by sea to Jaffa, and come up from 
Jaffa to Jerusalem. 

This seems in early centuries to have 
been called " David's gate" (see Arculf. 
A.i) 700), probably because it lay close to 
the tower of David or castle of the Pisans. 
Some have supposed that the gate of David 
was the modern Zion gate, but the follow- 
ing passage in Ssewulf (a.d. 1102) shews 
us that the Jaffa gate is meant. Having 
ascended from Jaffa to Jerusalem, he thus 
writes, " introitus civitatis Jerosolymaa 
est ad occidentem, per portam quas vocatur 
porta David" (Peregrinatio, Paris quarto 
edition, p. 259). 

Jalal Addin, 188, and elsewhere. 

He was a native of Siut in Upper Egypt, 
born in the beginning of the 15th century, 
a Mahommedan. He was a prolific author, 
and among other works produced " A 
Confutation of the Millennarians" (Rey- 
nold's Preface to Jalal Addin's Hist, of the 
Temple, p. 22). 

Jalud, Ain, 393. 

J apnea, now Yafa, near Nazareth, 
398. 



INDEX. 



545 



Jehoshaphat, Valley of, 256. See 
Appendix. 

Jerrin, the ancient Engannin, 386, 
389.. .The fountain, 386.. .The 
palms. 387... Fruit fulness, 387. 

Jeremiah, Grotto of, 232. 

This name is an ecclesiastical fiction. 
Fovea Jeremiae is the Latin name. Nice- 
phorus says that Helena erected some fine 
buildings here. These are gone. 

Jericho, 291, 295... Orchards, 296, 
299. 

Seems to signify "fragrance." It was 
the city of palms; the region of balsam 
and roses. Though overthrown by Israel, 
it seems to have been rebuilt and rein- 
habited, so that in after ages it became 
one of the most flourishing cities in the 
land, containing at one time, according to 
the Jerusalem Talmud, not less than 18,000 
priests, being next in rank to Jerusalem. 
Hence the road between it and the metro- 
polis was one of the mo^t frequented in 
Palestine. In the Jewish wars it is often 
mentioned, and one of the Roman legions 
brought up against Jerusalem was sta- 
tioned here. John the Baptist then had 
a populous neighbourhood to preach in, 
though the place where he did preach was 
a wilderness. He came from the wilder- 
ness of Judah, where he had been brought 
up, to the wilderness of Judaea where his 
brief ministry of* six months was to be ac- 
complished. How well would the people 
that flocked to him from all parts, and 
especially those who came down from 
Jerusalem, understand the prophet's words 
to which the Baptist referred, " Every val- 
ley shall be filled, and every mounta'n and 
hiil shall be brought low, and the crooked 
shall be made straight, and the rough 
ways shall be made smooth" (Luke iii. 5.) 

I suspect that the curse of Joshua was 
meant to apply to the rebuilding of the 
walls and fortifications of Jericho. The 
city had been long built before. Hiel 
came down from the not distant town of 
Bethel to fortify it. It is of the gates and 
walls of the city that mention seems to be 
made in his case (1 Kings xvi. 34). This 
is a very frequent sense of the word build, 
as when it is said that Eehoboam built 
Bethlehem (2 Chron. xi. 6). 

Jerome, his cell, 110. 

A Pannonian by birth, a "Roman by edu- 
cation, a man of strong will and vigorous 
mind, a scholar and a critic, both in Greek 
and Hebrew, he has been known as one of 
the Fathers of the Church. As the Secre- 
tary of Pope Damasus, nothing could be 
expected of him save superstition ; but 
as the student of Scripture, more might 



be looked for than his writings shew. Yet 
they are worth reading. He died in 420 
at Bethlehem, above eighty years of age. 

Jerusalem, first view of, 118. ..Eng- 
lish Church, 125.. .Heaps, 125 
...Walls, 126... Present aspect, 
329. 

The different names of Jerusalem are, 
Shalem or Salem, in the days of Melchi- 
zedec; ./(.bus in the time of the Jebusites, 
when the city had been taken out of the 
hands of its original Shemite possessors, 
—the great nation of the Rephaim, as 
some think ; then Jerusalem, called also 
the Holy City. By the Greeks, ~26XvfXa 
or 'isPfjffoXv/JL'Cl. A elia Cap itolina was 
the Pom an name, so called by Hadrian 
who rebuilt it. Jerome generally calls 
it by this name, A elia, though some- 
times by that of Jerusalem. 1 he Chris- 
tians in after days called it the Holy City, 
and the Mahomedans seem to have taken 
up this and called it Beit-el- Mukaddes, 
contracted into Makdes or Mikdash, and 
also Alacktash. Afterwards it is said to 
have been called Kuds Mobarek, sanctitas 
benedicta, and also Khuds scherif, sancti- 
tas nobilissinia. Gotz, Godz, and Cuzmo- 
bareh are also names given to it by tra- 
vellers and lexographeis. El-Kuds (pro- 
nounced El-Goods) ft the name now. 

The Jews say that it is written in the 
dual, Jerusalem, because of its being 
double, built on two hills. But there are 
other dual or plural names, such as Te- 
luim, 1 Sam. xv. 4; Appaim, 1 Chron. ii. 
30, 31. 

Of Jerusalem, Abraham Peritzol wi ites, 
" Shem, the son of JSIoah, was King of 
Shalem, which is Jerusalem " (Itinera 
Mundi, chap. ii). See the long note of 
his translator upon the name and history 
of the city. 

That Shalem is the original name for 
Jerusalem, and that it was at Jerusalem 
that Melchizedee was king, may be snen 
from the following statements : — (1.) The 
name of Melchizedec's city was Salem 
(Gen. xiv. 18). This corresponds with 
Jerusalem; and the identity is established 
by Psa. lxxvi. 2, — " In Salem is his taber- 
nacle, and his dwelling-place in 7Aon;" 
where Salem is given as the name for Je- 
rusalem, and placed next Zion. Salem 
(afterwards Jebus) seems to be especially 
Akra, where the original city stood. The 
fort was on Zion. That some of the fathers 
thought Salem to be the Shalem of Jacob 
is of little moment; and that some have 
thought Gerizzim to be Moriah, or that 
" the land of Moriah" is to be sought for 
in that northern region, is no more proof 



M m 



546 



INDEX. 



that such is really the case, than the 
patristic tradition which connects Tabor 
with Melchizedec and Abraham. (2.) The 
110th Psalm connects Melchizedec with 
Zion, as other passages connect him with 
Salem. (3.) Joshua x. 1 shews the traces 
of Melchizedec' 5 name in Jerusalem, ages 
after his day, " Adoni-zetfec, king of J eru- 
salem." 

Jezreel, now Zerin, 391 ...View 
from, 392. 
It means " Sown of God." Is the 
Sirim noted by Dr Robinson (vol. ii p. 
356), and set down in his map as south- 
west of the Sea of Tiberias, a relic of Je- 
rome's name, Sarona, — " usque in prse- 
sentem diem regio inter montem Tabor 
et stagnum Tiberiadis Saronas appella- 
tur." 

Jordan, 282, 284... Colour, 289... 
Jungle on its banks, 291... 
At the Sea of Galilee, 423. 
" The descending " or " flowing river." 

Joseph, Tomb of, 368... Khan Jubb, 
445. 

Judah, Tribe of, 14, 24... Lion of, 
24. 

Judges, Tombs of, 225-228. 

It is not easy to say why these tombs 
are not mentioned by the Rabbies. Pos- 
sibly it may be found that they are men- 
tioned, as the stories of Rabbinism are 
boundless. The old travellers do not often 
refer to them, though occasionally they 
do. Hietling writes : — u Inter omnes an- 
tiquitates curiosas notabiliorem non in- 
veni quam sepulcra Judicium et regum; 
sub terra in viva petra sunt veluti cellae 
magno in numero elaborata;" Peregrinus, 
p. 257. Pliny Fisk describes them as — 
(i What the Jews call the tombs of the last 
Sanhedrim" (Memoir, p. 279) . 

Kadesh, 457, 458. 

This name belongs to more places than 
one, — Kadesh Barnea in the south, near 
Petra, and Kadesh in the north, near 
Ca?sarea Philippi. The similar name, El- 
Kuds, now given to Jerusalem, was un- 
known in early times. It is entirely an 
Arabic name. This is the chief reason for 
rejecting the opinion of some, such as 
Lightfoot, Hengstenberg, and Xiebuhr, 
that Herodotus, in a well-known passage 
relating to Palestine, meant Jerusalem by 
Kadytis. Such a hypothesis involves an 
anachronism in nomenclature much more 
serious than if Josephus had been found 
calling it Aelia. Reland has taken the 
opposite side, but thinks that Gath is the 
town meant (Palestina, vol. ii. 669). An 



article in the second volume of the Classi- 
cal Museum takes up the subject, and 
gives strong reasons for believing Kadytis 
to be Kadesh-Naphtali (p. 93-97). Ley- 
deckel's and Scaliger's suggestion that it 
might be Kadesh-Barnea, is quite unte- 
nable. Let us look at the statement of 
Heredotus :— (1). It appears that Herodo- 
tus had seen Kadytis. The expression, 
Ojg S/JsOl hoteSt, implies this. Xow, 
though we know that Herodotus visited 
Palestine, there are many improbabilities 
against his having been at Jerusalem. He 
does not name it, nor describe it, nor 
speak of its temple, or sacrifices, or priests. 
This, in Herodotus, is quite incredible, had 
he been there. (2). The King of Egypt 
(Xecho), whose expedition the Grecian 
historian is describing, was marching 
northwards through Palestine into Baby- 
lonia. On his way he overcame Josiah at 
Megiddo, which is some sixty miles north 
of Jerusalem. Continuing his route after 
this to Carchemish (Circesium), on the 
Euphrates, he took the city of Kadytis 
(Herod, b. ii. chap. 159), " a great city 
(not the great city) of Syria," tffiktv rr,C 
llvptag sovcrav fLsyak^Vj which was 
thus evidently a city somewhere north of 
Megiddo. (3). There is no evidence that 
Jerusalem was taken at this time by 
Xecho. He was pressing forward, in obe- 
dience to what he thought a divine com- 
mand (2 Chr. xxxv. 20, 21), and he would 
not suffer himself to be turned aside. The 
narrative, both in Kings and Chronicles, 
clearly intimates that Jerusalem was not 
attacked nor taken by Xecho in his march 
against Babylon. (4). Kadytis is described 
as a great town of Syria, "not much less 
than Sardis" (Herod, b. iii. ch. 5) ; and on 
this Lighttoot relies as a proof that Jeru- 
salem was meant. But the historian does 
not call it "the capital," nor '"'the great 
city;" but speaks of it in the same terms 
'as he does of Azotus {rVjg Iv^iotg /xs- 
ycckriV Tohiv), b. ii. ch. 157). Kadesh 
was, then, a city like Azotus and Sardis. 
That it was an important city, and of 
some greatness, is clear from 1 Mace. xi. 
63, which shews us that it was one of the 
great citadels of northern Galilee, into 
which the princes of Demetrius had 
thrown themselves, "with a gj-eat power." 
See also Josephus' description of the popu- 
lousness of Galilee, in which he speaks of 
the least of its villages containing 15,600 
people (Jewish War, b. iii, 3, 2.) If, then, 
the Kadyta of Herodotus is to be identi- 
fied with either of the cities called Kadesh, 
it must be with Kadesh Naplitali. There 
is a Ka<lita, which Robertson mentions 



INDEX. 



5i7 



as having seen upon a height, in the way 
between Safed and Tyre,— about two 
hours' from the former. But I feel strongly 
inclined to believe that Kadcsh and Kedyta 
are represented by the modern Tell-el- 
Kady, less than two miles from Manias 
(See Dan). Jerome says it was called in 
his day Kydissus, and was close by Paneas, 
twenty miles from Tyre. If not Kadesh - 
NaphtalL Ei-Kady it may have been some 
other city of the name. Benjamin of 
Tudela places Kadesh on the banks of the 
ancient " a day's journey from Belinas, the 
Jordan, Dan" (vol. i. p." 82), which corres- 
ponds to no Kadesh now known. 
Karaite, 155, 156... Karaite Bible 
not a roll, 158. 

For the origin of name, &c, see Good- 
win's Moses and Aaron (chap. ix. 8), and 
Carpzov's notes, p. 1G8. 
Karub, at Nazareth, 399. 

In Talmudical Hebrew Karub or Karuv 
is a cabbage or cauliflower. (See Levi's 
Lingua Sacra, vol. iii, under the word.) 
Kasr, 86. 

.Kasr or Kusr, or Gosr, as our Hebron 
guide pronounced it, means a palace or 
castle, or sometimes merely a dwelling. 
Mr Brown at Alexandria mentioned that 
going once to an Egyptian village he 
heard the word used in reference to the 
Arab huts. The Arabic word corresponds 
with the Hebrew ")^H and both seem to 

•• T 

have meant originally " an inclosure." 
(See (jesenius.) The Hebrew word Hazar 
means a court or a village, and is the 
prefix of the following names : — Hazar- 
addar (Xum. xxxiv. 4j, village of Addar 
or greatness ; Hazar-enan, village of foun- 
tains (Xum. xxxiv. 9), on the extreme 
north of the land; Hazar-Gaddah (Jo.->h. 
xv. 27), village of success, in the south of 
Judah; Hazar-Hatticon (Ezek. xlvii. 16), 
middle village, in the Hauran ; Hazar- 
Shual (Josh. xv. 28), village of the fox, in 
Simeon; Hazar-Susah (Josh. xix. 5), vil- 
lage of the horse, in Simeon ; Hazar- 
Maveth (Gen. x. 26; 1 Chron. i. 20), "vil- 
lage or court of death/' — name of a man. 
It is used as an affix, as Baal-Hazar (2 
Sam. xiii 23), lord of a village or castle, a 
place on the way to Jericho, eight miles 
from Jerusalem. It is used in the form of 
Hissar, or Kasr, or Kusr. Saladin is said 
to have come to Kara Hissar, the black 
castle, not far from Haleb or Aleppo (Life 
by Bohadin. chap. xvii. p. 47). Bala-His- 
sar, or "the upper palace," is the citadel 
of a fortified town in central Asia, (Stoc- 
queler's Oriental Interpreter, p. 21.) 

In the description of Hebron I have 
mentioned the Kasr-Nadr-Habrun, (p. 



86) or palace of Ephron. The word 
nadr puzzles; but in Schulten's Index 
Geographicus, compiled from Abulteda 
and Arabic authorities, and appended to 
his Latin translation of Bohadin's life of 
Saladin, I find the word Monaidera (used 
by Bohadin as the name of an Egyptian 
fort) explained as meaning a watch-tower, 
" parva custodia speculave ;" and refer- 
ence made to its identity with the Hebrew 
t0 watch, as if the word meant 

— T 

"custos horti, tugurium hortulani." The 
above-mentioned name may intimate that 
this was the palace and watch-tower of 
Ephron. 

Kaub, 28, a kind of thistle. 

Kedar, scripture references to, 36. 

Kedron, 129... tombs in the valley 
of, 133.. .valley, 269... ravens 
of, 271. 

It means " valde tenebrosus," says Si- 
mon (Onomast.), very dark or black, 
gloomy by nature, like the " valley of the 
shadow of death," more so by the uses it 
was put to, as b6ing the common sewer of 
the city, " aquis fimo et coeno atratis," 
says Lightfoot. It could ngt be sail which 
gave its name to it, for I remember that 
this was reddish, and red as it is, how often 
has it been made redder with blood! Ke- 
dar and Kedron are the same in meaning ; 
the black tents of Kedar. and the " very 
black " vale of Kedron, remind us of their 
common aspect. It is called in the Old 
Testament Nahal (2 Kings xxiii. 6, 12), 
which word sometimes means valley, (Gen. 
xxvi. 17, " valley of Serar,") sometimes 
river or brook, (Josh. xii. 1, "river Ar- 
non;" 1 Kings xvii. 3, "brook Cherith"). 
The nature of most eastern rivers has 
made this apparent confusion between 
valley and river, seeing in winter there is 
a river, in spring a brook, and in summer 
a mere valley. In the New Testament it 
is called ysi/JjCi? log, a winter torrent, 
and hence the common name for it in all 
the old travellers is tor reus Kedron. In 
January 1855 there had been a great over- 
flow, and, of course, public rejoicings. 
(Jewish Intelligence, May. 1856, p. 137.) 

Kedron, fields of, 228. 

These are mentioned in 2 Kings xxiii. 
4, as the place to which Josiah brought 
forth the vessels of Baal, j ust as he brought 
forth " the grove and altar of Baal " to the 
brook Kedron, (verse 6 and 12). The 
relics or ashes of the vessels which he 
burned on the fields of Kedron on the 
road to Bethel, he carried to Bethel, 
(verse 4). The remains of the altar and 



548 



INDEX. 



prove he sprinkled upon the graves of the 
children of the people, up probably in the 
valley of Jehoshaphat, just where they are 
now. Kezekiah, in like manner, had 
carried out the filth found in the temple 
to Kedron, (2 Chron. xxix. 16). 

Keilah, 94. 
Kenites, 25. 
The name seems to be from *j jp, a nest in 

a rock, like that of an eagle, Num. xxiv. 
21. "Thou placest thy nest in a Tock." 
They begin with Jethro, and end with 
Jonadab, son of Eechab, and his descen- 
dants, 26. 

Kerak, 418, 419, (Tarichea or Ta- 
richaese, for both forms are 
used), 420. 

Kerim Kulil, 235. 

Khubbah, 28, a plant like the 
mallow. 

Khulil, Jebei, 30... Town of, 30. 
See Hebron. 

Lusignan gives the full name as Khulil- 
el-Rahaman, the friend of the blessed, 
Voyage, vol. i. p. 187. He mentions the 
large clusters of grapes growing in this 
neighbourhood, some weighing from ten 
to twenty pounds, ib. p. 190. 
Khurteh, 13. 

This is the Hebrew Horbah (which 
see). We often heard the word used by 
our Arabs in the northern part of the 
desert, and also in Palestine Khuraib 
er-Ram, ruins of Er Earn ; Khurbet en 
Nuzarah, or in Nusrani, ruins of the Na- 
zarenes or Christians. 

Khureitun, 250. 

Kings, Tombs of, 325. See Ap- 
pendix. 

In modern times, De Saulcy has given 
the fullest description of this excavation, 
though his theory regarding it is quite un- 
tenable. In Bernardino's Trattato de sacri 
edificii de terra santa (1620), there is a 
chapter on the " spelonche regie" with a 
plan (p. 60). In Domenico Laffl's Viaggio 
(1683) there is a still fuller description (p. 
176). Hietling describes these tombs 
briefly (Peregrinus, p. 257). Prefacing his 
description with some Latin Hexameters, 
he speaks of " judicii procerum, regum- 
que sepulchra." In his map of Jerusalem 
we have three places marked outside the 
gate of Ephraim, specus Jeremiae, sepul- 
chra regum, sepulchrum Helenae ; and it 
is well to notice that he calls Helena's a 
sepulchrwm, whereas he speaks of the 



other as sepulchra. There was evidently 
a sepulchral monument of Helena distinct 
ironi the tombs of the kings. (See the 
same in Castillo's el Devoto Peregrino, p. 
139). From Josephus downwards, the 
testimony to this is uniform. 

Kishon, 474. 

" Twisted," or " winding," like the 
E/X/CCO^ and Meander, and Helixus. 
"We have seen more tortuous streams, yet, 
like rivers flowing through plains, it has a 
peculiar tortuousness, which rivers flowing 
between mountains have not. "Ludit et 
ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque." 
Kuds-el, 331. See Jerusalem. 
Kullin (Kepher), 364. 

Karmid, 78. 

The ancient Carmel of Judah. 

Kuza, 364. 

Lachish, 94. 

Laish, 456, 458. ; 465, 466. 

It means lion, and is also called Les- 
hern. Some have supposed that the Laish 
of Isa. x. 30 is this northern Laish, and 
that the daughter of Gallim is exhorted 
to cry aloud, so as to be heard to Laish. If 
so, it would be the converse of what is 
said of the Assyrian, " the snorting of his 
horses was heard from Dan" (Jer. viii. 16). 

Lanterns, 264. 

Laun, Bir, at Hebron, 84. 

Lebanon, Passes of, 465. 

" Very white," the mountain of snow. 
Libanus and AntUibanus are the classic 
names for the western and eastern chains ; 
but the Scriptures give both the common 
name of Lebanon, though the Septuagint 
partially adopts classical usage. See Clas- 
sical Museum, vol, ii. p. 290-293. Sirion, 
Deut. iii. 9, or Shenir, Cant. iv. 8, or Sion 
(not Zion), Deut. iv. 48, are the Bible 
names for Hermon or Antilibanus. 

Lebonah (el Luban), 355, 363. 

Leddan, 449. 

Leontes, River, 463, 463. Now 
Litani. 

See Bosenmuller's Bibl. Geogr. ; Ee- 
land, vol. i. p. 290, 457. Is the name 
Leontes (lion. river), a relic of the Hebrew 
Laish (lion) ? (There are several places 
in the Lebanon region taking their names 
from animals, Nahr el-Kelb, the dog-river, 
Mountains of the Leopards, &c.) It is of 
some of these northern regions that Bo- 
hadin speaks when he calls them "pro- 



INDEX. 



vinces of the Lion's sons" (Life of Saladin, 
p. 123). The Leontes at its mouth takes 
the name of Kasmih or Kasmcijah. 

Lepers, 335. 

Lid (Bahr), 25. ..Tomb of Lot, 79. 

This is the Arabic name for the Dead 
Sea, " the Sea of Lot." 

Maaieh, 32. 

Signifies ascent. Prefixed to several 
places; such as Maaieh Akrabbim. 

Maan, 435. Near Sea of Galilee. 
Machpelah, 89, 90. 
Magdala, 433... Plain of (Ardh el- 
Mijdel), 435. 
The word means tower ; and hence, as 
in the cases of Raman, Gibeah, &c, there 
are several places called Magdala, But 
the evangelists, Josephus (Life), and the 
Rabbies, concur in placing one of these 
near the Sea of Galilee. In Matthew xv. 
39, Eusebius and Jerome have read Maga ■ 
dan. (Jerome must have read Magadan 
in Mark also, instead of Dalmanutha, — viii. 
10 ; — see De Loc. Hebr. sub Magadan), 
and they place this "Circa Gerasara." 
Of Gerasa Jerome says, " urbs insignis 
Arabia? (now Jerash, I suppose), quidam 
autem ipsam esse Gadaram existimant ; 
sed et evangelium meminit Gerasinorum." 
Their testimony as to the place is of little 
use, as they are evidently speaking of an- 
other place, not of Magdala. Dr Robinson 
thinks that Migdal-el of Joshua xix. 38, is 
the same place. Eusebius and Jeromejiow 
ever, are quite explicit as to its not being 
so. They tell us that it was, in their time, 
a village (Eusebius calls it rizyaXri, and 
Jerome, parvus) five miles north of Dor 
(Onomast), on the way to Ptolemais. Xo 
traveller mentions any place of this name 
in that neighbourhood; but I observe in 
one or two of the best maps, a wady 
called Wady Ajel, just five miles from Tan- 
tura (Dor) . May not this be a relic of the 
name, Migdal-el or Magdal-el ? Close by 
the mouth of this wady stands or stood 
the Castellum Peregrinorum (or Athlit), 
which confirms the suggestion that that is 
the site of Migdal-el. "The castellum, 
properly so called, occupies a small pro- 
montory, a little bay being on its southern 
side; the ruins of a town and fort are still 
conspicuous" (Dr "Wilson's Lands of the 
Bible, vol. ii. p. 248). 

Mahal- el, 404. 

Mamilla, Birket, 128. 

There was a church here to an old 
saint called Mamella or Mamilla.. But 
the name is said to mean "like God;" if 
deed it be not a relic of Millo. 



Mandrake, 301. 

fm the Hebrew, Dudaim. See Kitto's 
Cyclopedia, Gesenius, Stephen's Latin 
Thesaurus (Mandrogora). As the Arabs 
called the yellow apples at Jericho Tufah- 
eUMejanim, "mad apples," so they call the 
mandrake Tufah-el-Sheitan, the " apples 
of Satan." Dr Stewart tells us of them (Tent 
and Khan, p. 355) . We saw the plants fre- 
quently in the neighbourhood of Jerusa- 
lem, but they were only in leaf. 

Maon, 26, 54. 

It means " a dwelling." It gave name 
to the adjoining wilderness, or " moor " as 
we should call it. (Josh. xv. 55 ; 1 Sam. 
xxiii. 24, 25.) 

Mar, Elyas, 117. 

Mar might have been supposed to be a 
contraction for fJjCl/Caojog (which is ap- 
plied to Greek saints, as beatus is to Latin 
ones), were not Mar and Maran the 
Chaldee and Syriac words for lord or 
master. See Levi's Lingua Sacra, vol. iv., 
under the word. This is the word the 
apostle quotes in 1 Cor. xvi.22. Marana- 
tha, " the Lord is at hand," i.e. that Lord 
or Master whom he refuses to own and to 
love as such. (The Arabs seem to have 
borrowed their word for Lord, Kab, from 
the Jews.) An old commentator on the 
above passage writes, " Ab hac voce Mara- 
nitse apud Palajstinos, Marani apud 
Hispanos appellati sunt, qui Christum 
agnoscere nolebant vel ab eo defecerant. 
teste AVolfTgango Lazio, lib. i , de Migrat. 
gentium" (F. Balduini Comment, in ep. 
Pauli. This is an enormous quarto of 
more than 2000 pages, little known but 
worth consulting. Th 1 author was Theo- 
logical Professor at Wittenberg, and pub- 
lished his volume in 1664.) Peritzol, the 
Jew, speaking of the apostle Peter, puts M 
before his name, which some say he meant 
for Mar; others for Mekaddesh, holy; 
others for Mashar, blessed ; others for 
Mearer, cursed; others for Menai, apostate. 

Marsaba, 268, 272, 273. 

Masada, 249. 

Xow Sebbeh, which looks, not like a 
corruption of Masada, but of Zephath 
(watch-tower). Masada was not the ori- 
ginal name of this place, but one given 
afterwards on account of the fortifications, 
Masada signifying in the Hebrew a for- 
tress. " ^N'ever ha-; any spot been marked 
by a more appropriate title," says De 
Saulcy, whose descriptio* of the place is 
worth reading (vol. i p. 204) Josephus 
tells us that it was built by the ancient 
Jewish kings, as a place of security for 
property and person in time of war ; but 



550 



he speaks of it as not far from Jerusalem," 
(Jewish "War, iv. 7, 2), which last expres- 
sion might seem strange, were it not that 
he describes Hebron in the Very same words 
(ib., iv. 9, 9). Strabo notices it, and calls it 
Moasada (Geogr. p. 1066, Leipsic edition). 
Josephus names it in connection with 
other places in the south of Judea. Ce- 
realis he says took and burnt Hebron, " so 
that now all the places were taken except- 
ing Herodium, and Masada, and Machae- 
rus" (Jewish "War, iv. 9, 9). 

Median Ain, at Hebron, 84. 

Megillah, 132, 373. 

This word is from the verb to roll, and 
corresponds to the Latin volumen. It oc- 
curs twenty-two times in Scripture, once 
in the Chaldee of Ezra vi. 2, and the other 
twenty-one times in the Hebrew. It is 
the word used in Psa. xl. 7, "in the volume 
ofthe Book it is written," where the three 
chief Hebrew words on this subject are 
brought together, Megillah, Sepher, Katub. 
The Sepher is what we should call the 
volume, the Megillah the chapter or sec- 
tion, and Katub is the writing or engrav- 
ing. The Sept. gives h TteftcOJdl 
Ainv ; Symmachus renders itiv SlXy/HOtTI 
j3i£}Jo'u, in involucro libri. (See Bythner 
on the Psalm. Drusii Annot. and Fuller's 
Miscell.) The figure of Rev. vi. 14 is illus- 
trated by this. " The heaven departed, 
tii$ fiiOJov SfAltfaofAZVOV, like a book 
rolled up." Before they had been like a 
roll, fully unfolded and stretching over 
space, now they are (not " shrivelling like 
a parched scroll," as the poet would have 
them) rolled up and set aside as it were 
for a season, to be brought out in purged 
glory as the "new heavens," and unfolded 
in more than primeval purity over the 
new r earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
The word Megillath occurs fourteen times 
in the 36th of Jeremiah, referring to the 
roll written by Baruch. It occurs four 
times in Ezekiel (ii. 9 ; iii. 1, 2, 3). refer- 
ring to the roll which the prophet was 
commanded to eat. It occurs twice in 
Zechariah (v. 1, 2), referring to the flying 
roll which the prophet saw. The different 
duties connected with the Megillah, do 
not seem to have been very sacred, for 
they were put up to auction at certain 
times, the " beadle" of the synagogue act- 
ing as auctioneer. Who'll buy the Gali- 
lah (the office of rolling and unrolling). 
Who'll buy the Atz haijim (tree of life, 
the office of holding the cylinder or rod). 
Who'll buy the Garatha (the office of lift- 
ing and carrying about). The Galilah 



always brought the highest price. Bux* 
torf Syrag. Jud. ch. 14. Yitringa, de 
Synag. Vet. iv. 7. Bucheri Antiq. Biblicse, 
p. 946. Gillayoen, in the Talmud, signifies 
the margin or blank border that surrounds 
the leaf. Levi"s Lingua Sacra, vol iii. 

Merom, Waters of, 446. 
Meshrah el, the bathing place, 288. 
Migdal eder, 179. 
Migron, 345. 

"Place of battle" (Sept Mayb'Jjv). 
Perhaps the modern Makrun. 

Milh {el), perhaps Maladah, 24. 
Millo, 201. 

The word millo, signifies a wall 

or rampart, or mound, built up and filled 
in with stones and earth, (Gesenius, p. 
475; Jones' Proper Names of the Old 
Testament, p. 253). The Sept. gives it as 
d'/^oc in 1 Kings xi. 27. Its occurrences 
are the following : — 2 Sam. v. 9, " David 
dwelt in the fort (Zion), and called it the 
city of David; and David built round 
about, from Millo and inward ;" 1 Kings 
ix. 15, 24, xi. 27 ; 2 Kings, xii. 20 ; 1 Chron. 
xi. 8; 2 Chron. xxxii. 5. The first of 
these passages distinguishes Millo from the 
fort of David, yet places the one near the 
other. The second distinguishes Millo 
from " the w*uT of Jerusalem ;" the third 
from the city of David, of which Solomon 
repaired the breaches after he built (or 
rebuilt) Millo. The fourth (2 'Kings xii. 
20) calls it Beth-Millo, or the house of 
Millo, and connects this with the going 
down to Silla, which Silla seems to have 
been a part of southern Jerusalem, getting 
its name from the splendid algum-tree. 
Mesilloth, that is, terraces or ascents 
(Sept. ava&atiiiz, Vulg. gradus, Gese- 
nius, a ladder or steps.) In 1 Chron. xxvi. 
16, we read, "westward with the gate 
Shallecheth by the causeway (Mesilla) of 
the going up." The last two passages add 
nothing to our information. From all 
these notices we gather that Millo was 
westward of the city of David, " pars 
Sionis, vel colliculus ei aliquis adjectus 
a parte occidentali." Lightfoot, Cent. 
Chor. in Matt. p. 51. 

Minyeh-Khan, 431, 440. 

This has always been one of the stations 
on the great north road. The author of 
" Travels of four Englishmen," kc (1600), 
says, about " ten miles from this well 
(Joseph's pit), we came to a Kane called 
by the Moors Minium, and by the Turkes 



INDEX. 



551 



Missia, hard by the Sea of Galilee, where 
we lodged all night," p. 87. * 

Missionaries, 208, 252, 253... Miss 
Cooper's Institution, 217... Mr 
Roberts, 313. 

Moab, hills of, 275. 

Moladah, 24, 54. 

Moria.lt, 187, 189. 

Mosque of Omar, 184, 186. 

For Moslem traditions on this subject, 
Jalal-Addin may be read, where the 
Bait-l-Mukaddas, or Beit-el-Mokaddas, is 
fully described. This great Mosque or 
temple, as it is called, being counted so 
holy, gave perhaps the name of El-Kuds 
to the city ; if indeed that name were not 
taken from the i>revious Christian one, 
the Holy City. This temple is, according 
to Moslems, to remain in their hands until 
the day of judgment. Jalal Addin, p. 
254. The Kubbet-es-Sakhra is not the real 
Mosque of Omar. 

Nablus, 369, 370. 

The modern name for the Roman Nea- 
polis. Jerome says expressly, that this is 
the ancient Sichar, but not Shechem, 
which last, he adds, was in his day de- 
serted, Civitas Jacob nunc deserta est; 
De loc. Hebr. And narrating Paula's 
pilgrimage, he says, " transivit Sichem, 
non (ut plerique errantes legunt) Sichar 
quae (i. e., Sichar) nunc Neapolis appel- 
lator" (Epitaph. Paulae). This differs 
from the Jerusalem Itinerary, which 
makes Neapolis, Sechim, Sichar all differ- 
ent places. In the pilgrimage of Sir R. 
Guylforde (a.d. 1506), we read, "thereby 
is the cytie now called Neapolis, that some- 
times was called Thebas, of great fame ; a 
little from thence towardes Jherosalem is 
the well of Jacob, &c, thereby is Sychem 
where lye the bones of Joseph," p. 53. 

Nabutiya, 464, 465. 

I should have suggested that this is the 
Beten of Josh. xix. 25, were it not that 
this last was in Asher, and must have been 
further south. Jerome gives it as Bathne, 
and Eusebius as BcCTva/, and both make 
it eight miles east of Ptolemais. But there 
is a Betah in the extreme north (2 Sam, 
viii. 8, called Tebath in 1 Chron. xviii. 8), 
which may be Nabutiya. It is one of the 
cities which David seized in his expedi- 
tion to the north, and is mentioned in con- 
nection with Hamath and Berothai. 

Nain, now Nein, 395. 

" Pleasant" or " beautiful." The Nain 
of which Josephus speaks is Engannim, 
which he calls Ginaea, But the Rabbies 



refer to the Nain of the New Testament, 
and speak of it as owing its name to its 
beauty, and oflssachar as couching down 
between the vallies and mountain on 
either side. 

Nazareth, now En Nasireh, 397... 
Road to, 397, 398.. .Aspect of, 
399... Mourners at, 402. 
Nazareth seems to mean the flower or 

crown ; Sim. Onom. 

Nehemiah, well of, 159. 

This is the Jewish name for the Bir 
Eyub, and refers to the tradition recorded 
in 2 Mace. i. 19-36, as to the priest's hiding 
the sacred fire in a hollow chamber in a 
pit, and Nehemiah's finding it. After the 
finding of the fire, water appeared, with 
which Nehemiah purified the sacrifices. 
The king of Persia ordered the place to be 
enclosed and consecrated. Nehemiah 
called the place Nephthar, though some 
called it Nephi. On these two words, see 
Simon's Onom. N. T. p. 117; Grotius An- 
not. on the verse; Lamy de Templo Hier- 
sol. b. vii. sect. 3, p. 1249; Reland. Diss, 
de Vet. ling. Pers. under Ephtar. Their 
conjectures, however, are fanciful. The 

words seem connected with ""^HIO; c l eans- 
t t : 

ing, and pfB^ *° shine. It is quite pos- 

T T 

sible that Wady en-Nar may be a relic of 
Nephtar, — either its translation or its cor- 
ruption. The Jewish tradition, however, 
as to Nehemiah's connection with the 
well (even though it were a fable), shews 
that it could not possibly be En-rogel. 

Nephilim, 52. See Anakim. 

Nicolayson, Mr, his death and 
character, 231. 

NiMai, 432. See Petachia, 57. 

I find that Nittai was not buried at 
Tiberias, but at his native Arbel. For 
Ittai, in the text, read Nittai. 

Oak, Abraham's, 83... of Saul, 3... 
of Joshua, 368. 
Of the oak of Abimelech Jerome speaks 
as still existing in his day. He calls it 
Balanus Sicimorum, the oak of Shechem 
(Judges ix. 6). He speaks of it as "in 
suburban o rure Neapoleo?, prope sepul- 
chrum Joseph." As to the longevity of 
oaks, I subjoin the following statement 
from a newspaper a few months ago. 

The famous oak of Reischwitz, near Breslau, 
in Silesia, has at length fallen under the ravages 
of time, after having acquired an age which, as 
the examination of the trunk by the naturalists 
of Breslau has shown, cannot have been less 
than 1500 years. It fell, seemingly, without any 
external impulse, on the 15th of this mouth. 



552 



INDEX 



The circumference near the ground was 66 feet, 
and 31 feet where it divided into branches. In a 
cavity of this gigantic tree a bench was placed, 
which afforded comfortable seats to nine persons. 

Olive, The, 129. 

This tree might have been included by 
Virgil in his list of trees that sprout up 
from the stem. " pullulat ab vadice." He 
mentions it as a tree which grows best 
when planted bodily. " truncis oleas melius, 

propamine vites respondent." AVe 

saw them planting the olive-trunks ac- 
cording to Virgil's counsel, 236. The 
Arabic for olive is Zeytun, and the He- 
brew Zait. Hence the proper name Ze- 
than, 1 Chron vii. 10, c ^responding to our 
Oliver and Olivia. 

Olives, Mount of, 137, &c. 

It is now called Jebel et Tur. }'ost 
writers take Tar simply for a mountain." 
but " the mountain of the mountain" is 
an awkward name. Van de Velde sup- 
poses that it is a contraction of Tabor, 
(vol. ii. p. 52). But see Tabor. 

Pastor a, village, 179. 

Pilgrims, 476. 

Thousands of these pilgrims visit Jeru- 
salem annually. The deck of an Irish 
steamer in the month of August is nothing 
to the deck of an Austrian steamer in 
March. 

Plain, Shepherd's, H2...Rephaim 
or Ei-Beka, 120...Esdraelon, 
389... Phoenician, 466, 468. 

Pool, of Hebron, 93... of Solomon, 
97...Hezekiah, 124. 327. 
The Hebrew is— (1). D!M again, a 

t - ; 

pond, or small lake of standing water, or 
marsh, from the vei b to be warm and cor- 
rupt. This is the word used in reference 
to the Egyptian tanks or lakes (Gen. vii. 
19 ; viii. 5). It is used for a ponds for 
fish" (Isa. xix. 10). The wilderness is to 
become " a pool," or lake (Isa. xxxv. 7 ; 
xli. 18). (2). nD"^2« berechah, corres- 
t •• ; 

ponding to the Arabic Birkeh, which is ?o 
often hi the mouths of our guides. It is 
smaller than the A gam. and built by man's 
hands; hence Nineveh, in her desolation, 
is compared not to a "sea," or a "lake; " 
but to a " pool" (Berechah, Xah. ii. 8). 

" And Nineveh is a pool of waters, 
She of ancient days ! 
They flee ! 
Stand ! stand ! 
But no one looketh back." 

It is Berechah that is used in the follow- 
ing passages :-" The pool of Gibeon," 2 
Sam. ii. 13 ; u The pool in liebr on," 2 Sam. 



iv. 12; "The pool of Samaria." in which 
they washed Ahab's chariot; "The con- 
duit of the upper pool " 2 Kings xviii. 17 ; 
' How he made a pool and a conduit" (2 
Kings xx. 20) : 4< I went to the cate of the 
fountain, and to the king's pool,'" (Xeh. ii. 
14); "the wall of the pool of Siloah by 
the king's garden," (Xeh. iii. 15); "the 
pool that was made," (Xeh. iii. 16) ; "I 
made me pools of water" (Eccles. ii. 6); 
" Thine eyes are like the pools in Hesh- 
bou, by the g-ite of Bathrabbim " (Cant, 
vii. 4) ;" " The conduit of the upper pool " 
(Isa. vii. 3) ; " The waters of the lower 
pool" (Isa. xxii. 0): 'The water of the 
old pool" (Isa. xxii. 11); " The conduit of 
the upper pool" (Isa. xxxvi. 2). (3). 
Hlp^D- properly a place in which 

water is gathered or flows together. " Ye 
made a ditch (or reservoir, or canal) be- 
tween the two walls " (Isa. xxii. 11). As 
a feminine noun (Xineveh) it is used Gen. 
i. 10. " The gathering together of waters " 
(Exod. vii. 19); "Their pools of water," 
literally the gatheiing of their waters; 
Lev. xi. 36, " a fountain or pit, wherein 
there is plenty of water," or a " gathering 
of water." (4). a V9 e h only used in 

Job. xxxviii. 28, "reservoir of dew," the 
places whence the dew comes forth; not 
"drops of dew," as our translation gives 
it. The word is seen in the name Eglaim. 
" The two pools," Isa. xv. 8, a village of 
Moab, called by Josephus ' Aya/.f.a, 
and by Eusebius ' AyaWstfA- It is 
evident that no one of these four w»ords 
indicates a fountain, or even a icell. A 
fountain is the bright bubbling gush of 
the water, " as a fountain casteth forth her 
waters," (Jer. vL 7.) A icell is the round, 
deep-dug pit, or bore, into which the 
water rises. A pool is a large, square, or 
oblona: tank, or open reservoir, more like 
a pond. The fountain of Elisha is a speci- 
men of the first. The well of Jacob at 
Sychar, and the Bir Eyub in the valley of 
the Kedron, are examples of the second. 
The open oblong building of Siloam is an 
example of the third. In Prov. v. 15, 16, 
we have several of these terms : — 

" Drink waters out of thine own cistern (b&r), 
And running waters out of thine own taeU (ber) ; 
Let thy fountains (ayn) be dispersed abroad ; 
Rivers of waters in the streets." 

Uzziah is said to have "digged many 
wells" (2 Chnn. xxvi. 10), literally '* cut 
out many cisterns" (bCr). Jeremiah 
speaks of " hewing out broken cisterns" 
(ii. 13 ; bir, according to the radicals, but 
bor, according to the Masoritcs). It is 
difficult to draw a distinction between the 



INDEX. 



553 



Mr and the bor; yet, in general, the for- 
mer seems applied to open wells or pits in 
the fields (Gen. xxix. 2 ; 2 Sam. xvii. 18), 
and the latter to the dark and covered 
cisterns or dungeons under the houses; 
Isa. xxxvi. 16; Jer. xxxviii. 6, 7; Lam. 
iii. 53, 55. 

Potter's Field, 148. 

Here the potters worked, or at least 
drew their materials. It has been conjec- 
tured that here the broken pottery was 
cast out, and that the name potter's field 
was given " quomodo Romae doliolo, sive 
testaceo monti ;i testis fictilium vasorum 
nomen datum fuit." Maldonatus, quoted 
by Bynseus de Morte Christi, vol. ii. p. 
453. Jeremifih was recommended to go 
to "the Potter's house" (xviii. 2), and 
there he found the operations of the potter 
going on. They were making a vessel of 
clay. Again he was commanded to go 
(to* the same place, we suppose), and get 
a "potter's earthen bottle " (xix. 1), and 
having got this he was to go to the valley 
of the Son of Hinnom, which was hard by. 

Pottery at Beersheba, 9... north 
of it, 28... at Jerusalem, 148. 
Prickly Pear, 80... on Zion, 145... 
at Nablus, 371... at Shunem, 
394... at Nazareth, 400. 
This tree forms the fence or hedge to 
many a garden and village. Its size, 
strength, and formidable spikes make it a 
good defence. This perhaps may be the 
bramble of the parable (Judges ix. 15), 
and perhaps it may be the " hedge of 
thorns" in the way of the slothful man 
(Prov. xv. 19); or the "thorn -hedge'' of 
Micah vii. 4, " the best of them is a brier, 
the most upright is sharper than a thorn- 
hedge." 

Quarries, 315, 316, 317... men- 
tioned by Josephus, 320... 
their extent, 322... Intricacy, 
323. See Cotton-cave. 

Robbies, 154, 157. 

The following is a specimen of a Rabbi : 
— " R. Jochanan Ben Zacchai was carried 
out in a coffin, as if dead, and brought to 
Vespasian's camp. 4 Where is your king,' 
said he. The soldiers reported to Vespa- 
sian that a Jew wished to see him. Let 
him come, said the general. When Jo- 
hanan came he said, * Live, king, live, 
king.' ' I am not a king,' said the Roman 
general. ' Yet thou shalt be a king,' said 
the Jew, ' for that temple cannot be de- 
stroyed but by a king, as it is written, 
Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.' " 

Rachel, 116.. .Tomb of, 116, 178. 



Rahkath, 441. 

Rain at Jerusalem, 327... at Urtass, 
181 ...on Lebanon, 464... at 
Sidon, 466... at Carmel, 475. 
As to the general state of the weather in. 
Palestine throughout the year, see Car- 
penter's Calendarium Palestince, which ii 
a kind of Almanack (1825), which U 
chiefly compiled from Buhle's Calenda- 
rium Palestine* Oeonomicum. See the 
Kalendarium Judaicum in Lamy's Appa- 
ratus Biblicus, book i. chap. 5, In several 
of the Rabbinical works these calendars 
are found. The oldest is said to be the 
Megillath Thaanith, " the volume of afflic- 
tion," in which (as in the records of no 
other nation) the anniversaries of Jewish 
sorrows and humiliations are recorded. 
In connection with the rains of Palestine, 
the following table is interesting. The 
irregularities in the fall of rain are very 
remarkable, as if Jerusalem alternated be- 
tween drought and deluge, — 



| For the Year . . 


g. >• 

i I 

s i 


P > 


Total .... J 


j Total . . . . j 


February. . 
March . . . 
April . . . 
May. ... 


1 Total 


October . . . 
November . 
December . 
January . . 




OX 

b 


00 

bo 


32.8 
6.0" 
0.0 
0.0 


P 


coops*, 
bo b *. b 


1846 
1847 


b 




M O C Cl 

ts b bo 


to 
OS 


0.0 

0.0 
19.0 
24.6 j 


00 oo 
00^1 


8 

os 


b 


© © M OS 

b b bo Is 


OS 


JO OS p p 

*. b bi b 


£2 

CC 00 


Not Registered. 


1849 
1850 


00 

b 


1 


1 24.0 
1 4.0 
2.2 
0.0 


en 
bo 


0.0 
6.4 
33.8 
14.6 


1850 
1851 


OS 

J* 
b 


CO 
OS 

to 


! 25.0 
: 8.8 

: o.o 

i 2.4 


00 

co 


0.0 
0.0 
15.2 • 
13.6 


03 OO 


b 


Of 


4.0 
21.4 
1.2 
2.0 


Ol 

£>- 


**CO M O 

is *v bo b 


185" ' 
1853 


oo 
os 

OS 


Ol 

en 


20.0 
1 24.2 
1 10.8 • 
0.0 


00 
OS 


0.0 
6.0 
12.4 
13.2 


i 1853 
i 1854 


OS 

b 


os 


13.0 
8.8 
2.4 
0.0 


CO 


3.8 
0.0 
6.4 
32.6 




10.2 
24.8 
0.6 
0.0 


oo | bs is b © 


1 1855 
1856 



_ 1 

Pi 



IK 



«5 S, 



554 



INDEX. 



Ramah, near Bethlehem, 114,116 
...now Er-Ram, 178. 

The following coincidences may help 
out the proof of Er-Ram being Ramah of 
Samuel: — (1). Ramah could not be very 
far from Rachel's tomb. This is implied 
in 1 Sam. x. 2, as Samuel's directions to 
Saul indicate that, immediately on his 
leaving him (Samuel) in Ramah, he would 
come to that tomb. The words are, — 

HDPD ^JDD^Zl' " in tf*y going from 

where I am now standing," i. e. thou shalt 
hardly have gone. See Gen. xxxv. 18, 
<; when her soul was in departing," 
JIJ^H- Tne preposition J, fixes the 

thing as done, either at the very moment 
or immediately after. (2). Ramah must 
have been near Bethlehem. This is indi- 
cated by the application in Matt. ii. 18, of 
Jer. xxxi. 15, to the slaughter of the chil- 
dren of Bethlehem, and its neighbouring 
villages or towns ; for we must not forget 
that the murders were not confined to 
Bethlehem, but extended to "all the 
coasts thereof," era 67 roh OPlOlC c/.'jty,c. 
The evangelist's application of the pro- 
phet's words implied that Ramah was one 
of these neighbouring villages. It lay in 
the region comprehended by the " coasts " 
of Bethlehem, and probably was a larger 
place than Bethlehem itself, which was 
*' little " among the thousands of Judah " 
(Mic. v. 2). As it was hard by Rachel's 
sepulchre, nearly looking down on it, and 
as possibly its murdered infants might 
be carried thither for burial, it was most 
natural that Rachel should be pictured 
to us as rising from her tomb to weep. 
(3.) The narrative in the 16th chapter of 
I Samuel shews the proximity of Beth- 
lehem to Ramah. Samuel was at Ramah 
when the Lord's message came to him (1 
Sam. xv. 34). There is no long journey 
intimated to him. He goes to Bethlehem, 
fulfils his commission, and returns home, 
— "so Samuel rose up and went to Ra- 
mah " (1 Sam. xvi, 13). Does not this in- 
timate that the two places were near each 
other ? 

Robinson, in his Researches, and Kitto, 
in his Cyclopedia (ii. 598, 599) take 
the Er-Ram, which they find two hours 
north of Jerusalem, as the true Ra- 
mah. This is irreconcilable with the 
narrative of Saul's journey after his 
father's asses. Jerome says, "est et alius lo- 
cus in tribu Benjamin (?) juxta Bethlehem, 
de quo dicitur vox in Rama," &c Seve- 
ral modern travellers mention Er-Ram, 
at the place described in the text. The 
number of Ramahs (heights) are great ; 



no less the other words of similar import 
(1.) Zophim, watchmen (Num. xxiii. 14) 
(2.) Jattir, lofty, (Josh. xv. 48). (3 ) Gi- 
beah, Gibeon, Gibbethon, Gaba, hills or 
lofty places. (4.) Sechu, watchtower <1 
Sam. xix. 22). (5.) Zephath, watchtower, 
Zephathah (2 Chron. xiv. 10). (6.) Mis- 
gab, height (Jer. xlviii. 1). (7). Nob, 
high place (1 Sam. xxi. 1). (8.) Miz- 
pah or Mizpeh, watchtower (Josh xi. 8. 

Ramah of Benjamin, 261, 342. 

ReJiob (Beth), 459. 

Reeds, 293. 

Rephabn, Valley of, 120, 177. 

The Sept. have translated it '-'giants." 
So has Josephus, following them. Both 
without reason. It is not called Shep- 
helah, a plain; nor Gahyeh, a deep val- 
ley in which water may find a chan- 
nel; nor Naghal, a stream-watered val- 
ley; but E?nek, a low tract of country. 
Eusebius says it is Tiara (3ogPav, Je- 
rome ad Septembtionem. Its present name 
is El-Beka, " the plain." See the interest- 
ting articles on the Rephaim in the Journal 
of Sacred Literature, beginning with Oc- 
tober 1851, p. 151. 

Restoration of Israel, 77... of the 
land, 105. 

Roads, 64, 95, 106, 131, 463.. .from 
Jerusalem to Jericho, 308. 
The word for highway is .\fesillah, a 
way cast or embanked, from Salal to lift 
up. It is the usual word for a public 
highway (Numb. xx. 19; Isa. xxxiii. 8). 
Jt is the word used in 2 Kings xviii. 
17, and Isa. vii. 3, the "highway of the 
fuller's field." It is the word used in I 
Chron, xxvi. 16, 44 the causeway (or high- 
way of the going up ;" in xxvi. 18, " four 
at the causeway" 2 Chron. ix. 11, " ter- 
races" or ascents. It is the word in Judges 
v. 20, "the stars in their courses (their 
highways) fought against Sisera." See 
C B. Michaelis on the Hagiographa, vol. 
iii. p. 656, where there is an excellent 
reconciliation between the readings in 2 
Chron. ix. 11, and 1 Kings x. 12, shewing 
(after Abarbanel) that the one place 
speaks of the Mesillah, or terrace ; the 
other of the Mishad (props, or rails ; see 
Margin) which fenced that terrace. It 
may be noticed here that the algum-tree 
is, in the old versions, identified with the 
tbyine wood of the Apocalypse. The 
Rabbies say that a private way is four 
cubits broad; from one city to another, 
eight cubits broad. A public way, sixteen 
broad ; to the cities of refuge, thirty two. 
A king's way has no measure; for he 
may go where he pleases ; and the way 
to the sepulchre has none, on account of 



INDEX. 



555 



the honour due to the dear (they are to 
be treated as kings) ; Lightfoot ; Decas 
Chorographica. The modern word Verb- 
sultan (Sultan's way) corresponds exactly 
with the ancient Derek- hammelek (Num. 
xx. 17.) 

Dr Robinson is too decided in his asser- 
tions as to the mountainous roads of 
Palestine never having been practicable 
for carriages. "Wheels never passed 
here," says he, of the road between Heb- 
ron and Jerusalem ; see Biblical Re- 
searches, vol. i. 317. Three remarks 
occur to us here :— (1). It is impossible to 
judge of the roads two thousand years 
ago by. the roads now. The rains of ages 
have washed away terraces, embank- 
ments, &c, which, for aught we know, 
may have taken away all that precipitous 
character which some of the roads at 
present exhibit. Let Arthur's Seat be 
left to the rains and frosts of ages, and 
where will be the " Queen's Drive?" A 
future visitor of the ruins of Edinburgh, 
such as Dr Robinson, on climbing that 
hill, might say, " wheels certainly never 
passed here. (2.) Josephus tells us that 
Solomon "did not neglect the care of the 
ways, but he laid a causeway of black 
stone along the roads that led to Jerusa- 
lem," Antiquities, book viii. chap. 7, § 4. 
He tells us also that Solomon was in the 
habitof going in his chariot to his gardens 
at Etham, so that he must have driven 
along a part at least of tne worst roads 
in the country, if the roads were then 
what they are now. (3.) Dr Kitto gives 
his personal experience very distinctly 
upon the point. " We have travelled in a 
chariot over roads, very far more diffi- 
cult to chariot wheels than the road 
between Hebron and Jerusalem." Land 
of Promise, p. 81. (1.) Mr Ewald, mis- 
sionary in the East, visiting Hebron in 
January 1853, thus writes, ''they forget 
that ancient chariots were very different 
from our present stage coaches ; the 
wheels were lower and much broader and 
stronger than ours, and besides, we did, 
in fact, perceive vestiges of an ancient 
carriage road all along from Jerusalem 
to Hebron." (Jewish intelligence, 1S42, 
p. 131.) 

Roll, Samaritan, 374. 

Rolls, Jewish, 132. See Megillah. 

RuJiaibeh, 10. 

The best description of Ruhaibeh is in 
Borrer's journey from Naples to Jerusa- 
lem, p. 374, 376. 'He examined the wells 
thoroughly. 

Sacrifices, Samaritan, 374. 
Safet, or Safed, 415. 
StkhraJi-es, 184, 189, 192, 196, 
t; the rock." 

Sakhr is the Arabic for rock. The able 
author of the article on the true site of 



Calvary, in the Museum of Classical 
Antiquities (May 1853) suggests that the 
Sakhrah was the foundation of the great 
tower of Antonio. But the description 
of that tower given by Josephus pre- 
cludes this. "Jt was erected on a rock 
fifty cubits high," (Jewish War, v. 5, 8). 
The Sakhrah is only seventeen leet high, 
or five above the floor of the Mosque, 
which floor is twelve or thirteen above 
the surface of the hill.— i. e.. 13 + 5 = 17, 
not 17 -+- 12, as Kratt makes it in his 
Topography of Jerusalem. It overlooked 
a vast precipice, which the Sakhrah never 
could have done. Antonio must have 
been farther north and west than the 
Sakhrah. 

Saladin, 160, 164. 

Salt for the altar, 206... Dead Sea, 
283. 

The sacrificial salt, and the salt for 
sprinkling on the floor, is frequently 
mentioned by the Rabbies. It was kept 
in a particular room or cellar, called the 
" salt-room," one of the three rooms 
which were towards the south, — which 
were the skin-room, the washing-room, 
and the salt-room ; Schoettgen's Hor. 
Hebr. p. 23. The salt used, says the 
above writer, was "non fossilis, aut 
coctilis, sed bituminosus." This salt was 
very large in grain, or, rather, it was 
found in balls of a considerable size: for 
out of them the bridegroom made his 
wreath in the time of the second temple, 
and a certain Sadducee who poured 
water from >iloe at the foot of the altar, 
was stoned with these salt-balls; and 
when, in the tumult of that scene, one of 
the horns of the altar was broken, a 
temporary repair was made with some 
of these balls, that the injury might not 
be seen. This salt would seem to have 
been a cure for toothache (ib. p. 21). Jt 
frequently " lost its savour," and then 
it was used for sprinkling on the floor, 
"to be trodden under foot of men" 
(Matt. v. 13); yet it was not to be thus 
used in the streets of the city, but only 
in the temple. 

Savliedrim, 226, 227. 

This is one instance in which the Jews 
have borrowed from the Greeks. The 
word Sanhedrim (in spite of the Rabbies) 
being (fuv'sdoiOV, consessus Leusden's 
Philologus Hebraao-Mixtus, Dissert, xlvi. 
p. 339. 

Samaria, now Sebustieh, 377... 
Fineness of site, 378... Tombs, 
379... Future of, 381... Colon- 
nade, 382. 

Sarepta, 468. The "place of 
smelting," now Sarafend. 



556 



INDEX. 



Sanur, 383 ; Plain and fort. 

Kiepert, in his Wandkarte von Palaes- 
tina, marks this as Bethulia. and others 
surest this. But it is doubtful. Bethulia 
must have been on a greater height than 
Sanur. 

Saxdeh, 363. 

School at Bethlehem, 179... Dio- 
cesan, 267. 

Scopus, 170, 238, 239... Its battles, 
340. See Appendix, and Shukif. 

Sebbeh, 26. 

See Masada. Sebbeh can hardly be 
reckoned the corruption of Masada. The 
words are quite unlike. But Masada may 
have had also another name, such as Ze- 
phath, as it was not only a fart but a watch- 
tower. It is rather too far north to be 
Zephath or Hormah (Judges i. 17). Seb- 
beh would be the Arab corruption of 
Zephath. 

Semakh, 418, 422. 

Semua, 35, 54. 

Probably the Esh - Temoh or Esh- 
Temoah of Scripture (Jos. xv. 50; xxi. 
14; 1 Sam. x\x. 28; 1 Chron. iv. 17; vi. 
57), which means n " woman of name,'' 
signifying perhaps "a city of name," as 
2 Sam. xx. 19, Abel is called " a city, a 
mother in Israel." 

Semivil, Nebi, 260. . .view from, 260, 
261, 263. 
Sacellum Samuel, or Sylo, is the eccle- 
siastical name for this. 'See Antonio del 
Castello, p. 136. This mountain must 
always have been a place of note, and it 
is singular that, being so near Jerusalem, 
it should have lost its real name. It 
took, perhaps, the name of Samuel from 
its being identified with Shiloh, where he 
was brought up, or w ith Mizpeh where he 
assembled the people, or with Ramah 
where he was born and died. If Jerome's 
statement be correct, his body is not in 
Palestine at all but in Thrace, being 
transported thither by Augustus Arca- 
dius, u qui ossa beati Samuelis, de Judaea 
transtulit in Thraceam." Adv. Vigilant., 
ch. ii. Samuel and Joab are the only two 
(save the kings) who are said to have been 
buried in their own house, 1 Sam. xxv. 1; 
1 Kings ii. 34; not perhaps actually in the 
house itself, as that would have brought 
ceremonial uncleanness on the dwellers 
(Numb. xix. 16, 18), but in their court or 
garden. See Carpzovius' Annot. on Good- 
win, p. 643. Felix Fabri makes Nebi- 
Samwil Sylo (Shiloh) as do the old pil- 
grims, telling us that Samuel was first 
buried here, and therefore this mountain 
ivas called by Jiis name, but that his body 
was afterwards taken to Ramatha," but 
afterwards carried to Thrace in a golden 



urn covered w ith silk, amid the rejoicings 
of a vast concourse of people (Evagato- 
rium, vol. i. p. 233). Adrichomius refers 
to Brocard as setting Gibeon upon this 
mountain, and making it what Mr Stanley 
has done, the high place of Gibeon (Then- 
trum S.Terrae,p. 17; Sinai and Palestine, 
p. 212). I should have supposed that 
Epiphanius meant the same were it not 
that he makes the mountain of Gibeon 
eight miles from Jerusalem, which is con- 
siderably further than Nebi-Senwil. The 
confusion, however, which exists in the 
minds of these writers, and even of Jerome 
himself, as to the different Gibeons ond 
Gibeahs, rather obscures their statements. 
Can it be the Mount Perazim of Isa. 
xxviii, 21 ? 

Sepulchre, Church of, 265. 

The allusions to this, from the time of 
Cyril downward, are innumerable. His- 
torians and travellers all refer to it. It 
seems to have preserved its site from 
the time that Constantine erected it, 
though often assailed and ruined. There 
were evidently two places of special sanc- 
tity in J erusalem ; one on the supposed 
Calvary, and the other or Mount Moriah. 
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and 
the Templum Domini are mentioned by 
all the old writers. Some of the old 
mosques on Moriah are supposed to have 
been Christian churches. Indeed, it 
seems to have been the practice of Ma- 
hommedans to turn the churches into 
mosques, and of Christians to turn the 
mosques into churches. The Jews call 
the Church of the Sepulchre the " Church 
of the Nazarenes ' (Chron. of Rabbi 
Joseph, vol. i. p. 227), and they call the 
cross " the wood,'' (ib. 212). The Moslem 
historians speak or the " Church of the 
Resurrection." or " Church of the Holy 
Resurrection " (Jalal Addin, p. 176,224). 
It would appear that the " Saracens " did 
not injure the church when they took 
possession of the city, though there was 
a proposal to " destroy the building, to 
bring down the lofty spire, to unroof the 
sepulchre," &c, which was rejected (ib. 
252). So that there is every reason to be- 
lieve that the present church is really 
the old Church of Constantine, though 
greatly changed, and on the same site. 
Indeed, Jerome's statement as to the posi- 
tion of the church in his days shews that 
it could not have been on Moriah, as 
some have conjectured. 

The church built by Constantine was 
originally a mere Oratory over the sup- 
posed sepulchre, called Anastasis; and a 
little way eastward was built the Basi- 
lica, called the Martyrion, in 336. In 
these, every form of idolatry was prac- 
tised, till, in 614, the Persians under 
Chosroes II. swept over the land and 
plundered the churches. In 626, Modes- 
tus, Abbot of the Theodosian convent, 
was permitted to restore these. In 637 



INDEX. 



557 



the Saracens stood before the walls of 
Aelia," and in spite of a four months' 
resistance, took possession of Jerusah m, 
•where (save the eighty-nine year? ot the 
Crusaders, from 1099 to 1188) it has re- 
mained ever since. In 969 the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed by fire ; 
afterwards it was rebuilt, and again de- 
stroyed in 1010 by Hakim; and again 
rebuilt in 1055. The Crusaders joined 
all the churches into one called the 
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which, 
with some alterations, remains to this 
day. The dome of this church (or rather 
two domes) stood almost under the w in- 
dows of our hotel, with only a house or 
two, and the Birket el Hammam (bath- 
pool or pool of Hezekiah ) between. It is 
not very handsome in itself, and its ap- 
pearance was not improved by the large 
patch on its south-western side, the 
repairing of which gave rise to the French 
and Russian dispute which led to the 
Crimean war. The Pasha, it is said, 
offered to repair the breach ; but this, it 
seems would have given him some awk- 
ward claims over the building. I under- 
stand now why the Samaritan " adver- 
saries of Judah" (Ezra iv. 1), were so 
anxious to "build with them." Had this 
been allowed, they would have had a 
claim for future interference. If a man 
builds a house in Syria, the Bedawin 
come and humbly ask the favour of being 
ermitted to place just one stone in the 
uilding. If allowed to do so, the pro- 
prietor and they become "brethren," and 
they are constituted his guards or pa- 
trons ; for which service he has to pay 
some 100 or 2(0 piastres ! See an article 
in the Revue de deux mondes by M. Von 
Segur Dupeyron. 

Shafat, 341. 

Shamir, 35. 

A town in Judah (Josh, xv.48), mean- 
ing, perhaps, the '* guard-city." 

Sheba, 9. See Beersheba. 

Shema, 9, 24. 

This is probably Ptolmey's Zamma, 
not perhaps identical with Beersheba, 
but near it. 

Shemak (Wady), 417, 
Sheraf, Deir, 380. 
Shiloh (Silun), 361 ... Desolation, 
362. 

Shirah, Well of, 81...Bir-Sirah, 82. 
Shukif (Kalat), 462. 

There are a good many places in 
Syria with a similar name. I suppose 
that the Arabic word, Shukif, may be 
identical with the Hebrew, £]p$ to 

lie over or look out from (as a win- 
dow) ; which is used respecting a moun- 



tain overhanging a region (Num.xxi. 20; 
xxiii. 28). If this word were the origina L 
of Scopus (the hill north of Jerusalem), 
how striking would be Jeremiah's figure, 
* k Evil looks out from the north" (v. 1), 
pointing not only to the country whence 
the invader was to come, but to the very 
hill on which he was to appear. 

Shunem, now Solam, 394. 

Siloam, village of, 142, 151... Pool 
of, 163 ... Drawing of water 
from, 164... Rise of, 166. 

It may be well to cast together Jerome's 
statements upon the site of Siloam or 
Siloe as he generally though not always 
calls it. (1). It waters the valley ofHin- 
nom. " Respice convallem filii Ennon. 
quae Siloe fontibus irrigator, et ibicernes 
delubrum Baal, quern relicto Deo vene- 
rata es," on Jer. ii. 23. And again, " Aram 
Tophet (high places of Tophet) quae est 
in valle filii Ennon, ilium locum significat 
qui Siloe fontibus irrigatur, et est amce- 
nus atque nemorosus, hodieque hortorum 
praebet delicias," on Jer. vii. 31. (2). It 
is not unfailing, "uno quippe fonte, Siloe 
et hoc non perpetuo, utitur civitas, et 
usque in praesentem diem sterilitas plu- 
viarum non solum frugum sedet bibendi 
inopiam facit," on Jer. xiv. 3. (3). It 
watered the grove of Baal. " Egredere 
ad vallem filii Ennom, in qua erat delu- 
brum Baal, et nemus ac lucus, Siloe fon- 
tibus irrigatus," on Jer. xix. 2. (4.) It 
flowed out of the roots of Moriah. ** ldo- 
lum Baal fuisse juxta Hierusalem, ad 
radices, Montis Moria in quibus Siloe 
fiuit, non semel legimus," on Matt. x. 
28. (5). There were red rocks hard by, 

Simpliciores fratres, inter ruinas tem- 
pli et altaris, sive in portarum exitibus, 
quae Siloam ducunt, rubra saxa mon- 
strantes, Zachariae sanguine putant esse 
polluta," on Matt, xxiii. 35. (6). It is at 
the foot of Zion. " Siloam autem fontem 
esse ad radices Montis Sion." on Isa. viii. 
(7). It intermits in its flow. *• Qui non 
jugibus aquis sed in certis horis diebus- 
que ebulhat," on Isa. viii. (S). It flows 
through a rocky cave with great noise. 
" Per terrarum concava et antra saxi 
durissimi, cum magno sonitu veniat, 
dubitare non possumus, nos praesertim, 
qui in hac habitamus provincia." Yet 
strangely he adds, " doctrina aquarum 
Christi quae absque strepitu et ciamore 
verborum leniter fiuit." on Isa viii. The 
statement of the Jerusalem Itinerary 
is as follows Exeuntibus in Hieru- 
salem (I suppose he means by the East 
gate, the golden gate or the modern St 
Stephen's) ut ascendas Sion. in parte 
sinistra et deorsum in valle, juxta murum 
est piscina quae discitur Siloa habens 
quadriporticum." This im plies, that in 
his day (a. o. 333, before Jerome, within 
350 years from the destruction o£ Jeru- 
salem by Titus) the city wall came 



553 



INDEX. 



further down the slope considerably than 
it does now. Whether " juxta murura" 
means inside or outside the walls, may 
be doubtful ; but when he adds, " et alia 
piscina grandis foras," he would seem 
to intimate that Siloa was within the 
city. Of the intermitting flow he thus 
speaks, " Haec fons sex diebus atque 
noctibus currit, septima vero die est Sab- 
batum in totum, nec nocte nec die 
currit." 

Simeon, tribe of, 12... Territory of, 

14.. Jacob's curse on, 23... 

Judith belonged to it, 23... 

Border-line, 24. 
Sinjil, 360. 
Skin- bottles, 91,29. 
Smoke, Scripture reference to, 36. 
Snow in Jerusalem, 326... on Her- 

mon, 363, 406, 412, 455... 

Lebanon, 467. 
See Jewish Intelligence for May 1856, 
p. 137, where it is stated that in the pre- 
vious year (1855), the snow was a foot 
deep and lay a fortnight. 

Society, Literary, Jerusalem, 241. 

Socoh, 35. 

A mountain-town of Judah (Josh. xv. 
35 ; 1 Kings iv. 10 ; 2 Chron. ii. 7), mean- 
ing " fence" or " fort." 

Soldiers, 153. 

The castle of David seems the great 
barracks and guardhouse of Jerusalem, 
in front of which the soldiers are loung- 
ing. The old travellers, such as Sandys, 
speak of the soldiers under the name of 
spates, which is the Persian name, and 
curiously corresponds with sepoys or 
sepahis. The usual Arabic name is 
ascaree or jendee. 

Solomon, his pomp, 99... Retinue, 

100... March to Etan, 101. 
Sounds, Conveyance of, 371. 

Sephardim, Jews, 154, 207, 210. 

From Sepharad, which most Rabbies 
think was Spain, though others the Bos- 
phorus. Zarephath is counted France 
(Levi's Lingua Sacra). 

Stones of Temple, 133. 

Sub-structures, 200 ... Subterrane- 
ous arcade, 202. 

Sultan, Birket-es, 122, 215... Ain- 
es, 297, 298. 

Sumah, near Nazareth, 403. 

Sumrah, 418. 

Suny Wady, 2. 



Synagogue, 154, 155. 

Synagogue, Samaritan, 372. 

Taanoth Shiloh, 361. 

Tabakeh, Ain Abu, 81. 

Tabor, 401, 405... View from, 406 
...Not the Transfiguration 
Hill, 407, 40S...Old Testament 
notices of, 409. 

As this mountain is now called Jebel 
et Tur, it is generally supposed that Tur 
is a contraction of Tabor. I suspect that 
it is not. Tur does mean a mountain, 
both in Chaldee and Arabic ; but, in the 
former, it also means an inclosure, or 
wall, or fortress (See Gesenius); being 
perhaps another form of Shur (a fort or 
wall), and Tsur (a rock), and Dura (a 
circle). It is remarkable that Geritsim 
has the name of Jebel et Tur, as well as 
Tabor and the Mount of Olives. These 
had all walls, or enclosures or forts, upon 
them. The wo; d Tabor is said to mean 
" stone-quarry." (See Jones' Proper 
Names, p. 3±9). There was an oak (or 
plain perhaps) called Tabor (I Sam. x. 3) 
near Jerusalem. Was it connected with 
the quarries ? When the tradition arose 
as to Tabor being the Transfiguration 
Mount, does not appear. It was current 
in the days of Jerome ; yet he expresses 
doubt on the subject ; "locus quern pu- 
tamus esse vel Thabor vel quemlibet 
alium excelsum montem ;" Comm. on 
Matt. v. 

Tappuah, 81. 

The Septuagint name of this town is 
0C6CT£OU£, which comes near the mo- 
dern Arabic Teffuh. Jerome's name is 
Thaphue, which he thus explains :— 
" Malum, ab arbore non a malitia intelli- 
gendum, sive tympanum apertum ;" De 
Nom. Hebr. ; See Josh. xiL 17 ; xv. 31. It 
is curious that Tappuach should be the 
name of the son of JJtbron, who was the 
grandson of Caleb ; 1 Chron. ii. 42, 43. 
Beth Tappuah is mentioned as one of the 
towns in the mountains of Judah (Josh, 
xv. 53). The Arab word Tafah, or Tef- 
fuh, corresponds exactly with the Heb. 
rew n^Dn Tappuach, both coming 

T 

very near to our word apple, as denoting 
not merely the fruit of one particular tree, 
but any round or oblong fruit, as we speak 
ot a pine-apple, a potatoe-apple. There 
is little doubt that in Wady Tafeh or 
Teffuh, we have the representative of 
ancient Tappuah. There was another 
place of this name on the border of 
Ephraim and Manasseh. 
Tasso, 313. 

Tell Hum, 414-441... Mr Bed- 
dome's Account of, 442-445. 



INDEX. 



559 



I do not enter into the question as to 
whether this is Capernaum or not. There 
are several things which make it very 
likely. The name is not the least of 
these. Bum is j ust that part of the word 
which we should have expected to sur- 
vive. As both city and village passed 
away, the Kefr was dropped, and Tell 
substituted as the name of the mounds of 
ruin ; for Tell means a mere heap as well 

as a hill ; and Peritzol uses 
swell of the Caspian Sea when the rivers 
pour into it.— (Itinera Mundi, ch. ix). 
Similar abbreviations occur frequently, 
as Fik for Aphek ; Zib for Achzib ; Ksaf, 
or Achsafy &c The Rabbies say, "half 
an hour east of Gennesar stands Than 
chum," Zunz. Benjamin first mentions 
a Capernaum (or Kephar Thanchum), 
near the coast (Asher, vol. i. p. 65), which 
shews that there were two places of this 
name. 

Terebinth, 83. 

This is the usual name for Abraham's 
tree. Eusebius calls it sometimes TSg'e* 
Qivdog, and sometimes bgvg. Josephus 
calls it a Terebinth (rs^tvdog {ASyi- 
6Tf\^ Jewish War, b. iv. 9,7). As there 
was another well-known tree, in or near 
the valley of Elah, it is sometimes diffi- 
cult to know which of the two trees Je- 
rome is speaking of. But it was the 
Hebron Terebinth that was the scene of 
the great fair mentioned by the old his- 
torians (see Kitto's Cyclopaedia, Alah : 
Ravanelli Bibliotheca, Quercus and Te~ 
rebinthus: Bisselii Palaestinae Topotho- 
sia, p. 17 and 46). 

Tiberias (now Taburiah) 412... 
Baths, 413...Burving-ground, 
432.. .Situation of, 434. 
The origin of this town is thus stated 
by Josephus Herod the Tetrarch, 
being in great favour witli Tiberias, 
founded (oiXodo/yLzTrai) a city called 
Tiberias, on the lake of Gennesaret." 
The Rabbies maintain that it got its 
name from its beauty, rVN"l H1!D; 
goodly to behold. 

Terraces, 46, 47. 

Thebes, now Tubar, 385. 

Thistles, 28,44...0fEsdraelon, 396. 

Tombs, Abraham's, 72... Jew's at 
Hebron, 77 ...Moslem, 76... 
Lot's, 79. ..Rachel's, lie- 
David's, 141... King's, 141... 
on Akeldama, 147 — Judges, 
226... Moslem, 231.., Jewish in 



vallev of Jehoshaphat, 256, 
257, 258... Samaria, 379. 

The Hebrew and Arabic words corre- 
spond closely to each other, the former 
being Keber or Kever the latter Kaber. 
The tombs we saw in Egypt were either 
underground, like our own, or in large 
structures like the pyramids, or the tombs 
of the Mamluks. Jn the desert the tombs 
were all under the sand, not in rocks, or 
caves, or buildings. In Palestine, they 
are either like our own, under ground, as 
in the Jewish burying-ground at Hebron, 
and in the valley of Jehoshaphat or 
Jerusalem ; or in artificial excavations in 
the rock. All who could afford it seem 
to have chosen the latter ; and the suburbs 
of Jerusalem are crowded with sepul- 
chral excavations. That these were 
chiefly for the great, and that they were 
objects of ambition, is obvious from such 
a passage as Isaiah xxii. 16, addressed to 
Shebna, the treasurer, *' What hast thou 
here, and whom hast thou here, that thon 
hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as 
he that heweth him out a sepulchre on 
high, that graveth an habitation for him- 
self in a rock." Lowth (the elder) sup- 
poses Shebna to have been originally a 
foreigner (Comment, on the Prophets, on 
the place), and that the questions what 
and whom refer to this ; as if he had no 
right to such an honour. It was perhaps 
peculiarly a national privilege ; so that 
as no Gentile could inherit the land 
none could obtain such a place for his 
tomb as he could call his own. The ques- 
tion then would be, what connection hast 
thou with Israel that thou assumest one 
of Israel's special privileges ? just as, 
Israel is addressed in reference to Egypt, 
Jer ii. 18, * What hast thou to do in the 
way of Egypt," &c, i. e. what affinity hast 
thou with the land that thou goest to 
drink its waters ? 

The large tombs, such as those of the 
Kings and Judges, have no inscriptions 
any where. But the flat stones in the 
valley of Jehoshaphat have their inscrip- 
tions as we have seen, some longer, some 
shorter, with the little at the top ; 

that word meaning originally a cippus or 
pillar (2 Kings xxiii. 17 ; Ezek. xxxix. 15). 
In Talmudical Hebrew it denotes a sign 
or mark. (Levi's Lingua Saera, vol. v. 
under the word). See more fully Carp- 
zovius' Notes on Goodwin, p. 645. He 
states that no Jewish sepulchre is left 
without the mark or t£^5)^. * est 

passers by should contract uncieanness 
by touching the grave. For this end also 
the tombs were whitewashed every year, 
on the 15th day of Adar. L amy's Appa- 
ratus Biblicus, b. i. ch. 14. The piilar 
which Jacob set up over Rachel is called 
Matseveth. 

The Jews called the sepulchre Keber 
(identical with the modern Arabic), from 
its being the place of burial ; or Mearah, 



560 



INDEX. 



trom its being a cave. Its interior cells 
or receptacles they called Kukim, and the 
stone at the mouth Golel. (Goodwin's 
Moses and Aaron, b. vi. ch. 5, sect. 7) 
See for other particulars, Lightfoot's 
Cent. Chorogr. on Matt., p. 176. 

Besides the valley of Jehoshaphat and 
Akeldama, the Jews had burying-places 
on Mouut Sion. Thus Benjamin of Tu- 
dela writes, — •* Mount Sion is near Jeru- 
salem, and upon this acclivity stands no 
building except a place of worship of the 
Nazarenes. The traveller farther sees 
there three Jewish cemeteries, where 
formerly the dead were buried ; some of 
the sepulchres had stones with inscrip- 
tions upon them, but the Christians de- 
stroy these monuments, and use these 
stones in building their houses." Vol. i. 
p. 72. 

When witnessing the Jewish funeral at 
Jerusalem we did not see any of the rites 
of which the Rabbies speak. We did not 
hear the long prayer which Rabbinical 
writers give as uttered at the grave. Bux- 
torf's Synagoga Judaica, p. 430-435. Nor 
did we see the taking up the earth and 
casting it behind them, as the sign of 
resurrection. Leusden's Philologus He- 
braeo Mixtus. p. 483. Dassovii Antiqui- 
tates Hebraicae, p. 212 The fullest 
statement on the subject of Hebrew sepul- 
ture is perhaps in Goodwin's Moses and 
Aaron, ch. v. with Carpzovius* Notes, p. 
639-645. The treatises of Nicolaus and 
Muller, de Sepulchris Hebraeorum, I have 
not seen. 

Towers, 63. See Kasr and Hazor. 
Trees, cut down by Titus, 131. 
Tuffah el Mejanim, or Madapples, 
300. 

Tujar (Khan), 410. " Merchant- 
Inn." 

Tuleil el-Ful, 261, 341. 
Turmus Ayah, 360, 
Tyre, 469... ruins, 470... daughters, 
471. 

Urtas, or Urtass, or El-Tos, 99, 

180. 
Usdom, 25. 

Villages, 11, 62, 63. See Daughters. 

These are often called daughters of the 
city round which they cluster. The order 
and connection were as follows. (1.) The 
city. (2.) Its common. (3 ) Its suburbs. 
(4.) Its fields and towers. (5 ) Its villages 
or daughters. So the tree was divided. 
(I.) The root. (2.) The stem. (3.) The 
branches. (4.) The daughters or out- 
most branches. 44 Joseph is a fruitful 
bough by a well, whose daughters run 



over the wall,*' (Gen. xlix. 22> It is curi- 
ous to notice also how the founder or 
proprietor of a place is called its father. 
44 These are the sons of Hur, the fii'st 
born of Ephratah, the father of Bethle- 
hem," 1 Chron. iv. 4. u Joab the father 
of the valley of Chorashim," 1 Chron. iv. 
14. " Ishbath the father of Eshtemoa," 1 
Chron. iv. 17. We find a similar use of 
the word in some of the Egyptian cities. 
44 In the names of Indian towns the con- 
cluding syllable usually affords some 
clue to their past history; thus Abad 
signifies built by, as Ahmed-abad,n city 
built by Ahmed Shah; Hyder-abad,"&c. 
— Stocqueler's Oriental Interpreter. 

Vines, 57, 61, 64, 80. 

Wailing, place of, 143. 

Well, Abraham's, 4... Isaac's, 7... 
Dried up, 60... Wells at He- 
bron, 81... at Bethlehem, 107, 
12... at Jerusalem, 159... 
Mosque, 207... at Nazareth, 
402. 

Wezar, village of, 394. 

This village is one of the low heights of 
Gilboa. Dr Robinson corrects Schultz, 
who gives it as Mezar Dr Robinson, 
however, gives Mezar in his last map, 
though in his earlier he gave Wezer. 
So, in regard to Anim, Dr Robinson 
adopts Dr Wilson's suggestion as to el- 
Ghuwein being Anim ; but he retains Ain 
in his last map. 

Yebrud, 346, 351, 355. 

Yetmah, 363. 

Yusuf (Khan Jubb), 445. 

Zatarah, 363. 

Zaretan, 298. 

Zeita, 376. 

Zidon, now Saida, 465, 467, 470. 
ZipJi, 26, 94, 248. 

The modern Tell-Ziph is about five 
miles south of Hebron, and probably re- 
presents one of the cities of that name. 
But as we read in Joshua of tvjo Ziphs 
(xv. 24, 55), both in the tribe of Judah, 
Jerome may be quite risrht in placing 
Ziph eight miles ea>t of Hebron. Simon 
makes it to mean 4 * borrowed," but Je- 
rome says, "mons squalidus vtl caligans 
sive nebulosus." 

Zucchum, 300. 

The oleaster or wild olive. 

Zuph, 114. 

Zuweirah, 25. 
Thought by some to be Zoar. 



INDEX 



TO 



SCRIPTURE TEXTS ILLUSTRATED. 





Genesis. 


Chap. 


Verse. 


i. 


2, 




10, 13, 


iv. 


14, 


vi. 


4, 


xiii. 


10, 


xiv. 


24, 


XV. 


h 


xix. 


27, 28, 




28, 


xxi. 


14, 




20, 21, 




30, 




33, 


xxii. 


24, 


XXV. 


2, 6, 




9, 


xx vi. 


13,23, 25 




25, 



XXXV. 

xxxvii. 
xlvi. 
xlix. 



17, 18, 

18, 19, 
21, 
25, 
10, 

3, 4, 
7,0, 

Xh 

15, 

16, 

22, 



Exodus. 



37 



Page 
89 
90 
20 
52 
285 
55 
71 
79 
274 
9 
10 
6 
3 
81 
84 
34 
8 
4 
393 
90 
179 
5, 445 
35 
290 
24 
61 
387 
458 
359 



Chap. 


Verse. 


Page. 


X. 


13, 15, 19, 


271 


XX. 


25, 


192 


xxviii. 


38, 


330 


xxix. 


6, 


330 


XXX. 


25, 


330 


xxxi. 


14, 


330 




Leviticus. 




i. 


2, 


225 


vi. 


25, 


225 


vii. 


2, 


225 


viii. 


9, 


330 


xiii. 


46, 


336 


xvi. 


4, 


330 




33, 


330 


xxvi. 


34, 


57, 478 




Numbers. 





i. 


23, 


14 


v. 


17, 


330 


x. 


19, 


14 


xiii. 


5, 


14 




22, 


51, 65 




28, 33, 


52 


xvi. 


3, 


330 


xxii. 


24, 

N n 


64 



62 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



N umb ers —continued. 



Chap. 


Verse. 


Page. 


xxiv. 


i — 

w, 


287 


XXV. 


1, 


287 




°, 


330 


xxxii. 


3, 34, 


£i 6 


xxxiii. 


28, 


480 




49, 


287 


xxxiv. 


4, 


32 




20, 


14 


xxxv. 


4,5, 


62 




Deuteronomy. 




ii. 


10, 11, 


51 


vi. 


11, 


11 


viii. 


7, 8, 


410 


ix. 


1, 


52 




1, 2, 


51 


xi. 


30, 


376 


xxiii. 


12, 


78 


xxvii. 


5, 


192 


xxxiii. 


6, 


290 




7, 


61 




14, 


359 




18, 


387 




22, 


458 




23, 


412 



Joshua. 



iii. 


15, 16, 


292 


iv. 


12, 13, 


290 




19, 


292 


viii. 


30, 


368 




31, 


192 


ix. 


3, 


260 




17, 


343 


X. 


5 > 


262 




10, 


32 




12, 


262 


xii. 


17, 


81 


xiii. 


4, 


418 




17, 19. 


276 


xiv. 


12, 


52, 63 




13, 


03 




14, 


64 



Joshua — continued. 



hap. 


Verse. 


Page. 


XV. 


2, 


280 




3, 7, 


32 




6, 


292, 294 




7, 


304, 309 




8, 


122 




9, 


338 




11, 


449 




18, 19, 21 


294 




24, 


84 




26, 


9, 24 




26, 50, 52, 55 


54 




32, 48. 50 


, 35 




34, 


81, 389 




35, 


248 




39, 44, 


94 




52, 


60 




55, 


78 


xvi. 


6, 


361 


xvii. 


1, 


375 


xviii. 


17, 280, 


282, 306 




19, 


280 




25, 


342 




28, 


117, 338 


xix. 


2, 


9, 24 




12, 


398 




21, 


387 




33, 


449 




35, 


441 




47, 


458 


XX. 


7, 


71 


xxi. 


11, 


29 




12, 13, 


63 




25, 


343 


xxii. 


25, 


289 


xxiv. 


13, 


11 




26, 


369 




Judges. 




i. 


16, 


25 




31, 


474 




36, 


32 


iv. 


5, 


344 


v. 


11, 


273 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



563 



Judges — continued. 



Chap. 


Ver&e. 


Page. 


ix. 


7, 14, 


371 




21, 


343 




50, 


385 


xvi. 


3, 


74 


XV111. 














OU, 


loo 




Rl) TH. 




i. 


2, 


249 




i Samuel. 




i. 


1, 


114 


ii. 


19, 


1 15 


vii. 


12, 


293 


viii. 


% 


12 


ix. 


5, 


] 14 




11, 


32, 114 


x. 


2, 


117 


xiv. 


2, 


345 


XV. 


12, 


78 


xix. 


22, 


342 


XX. 


19, 


293 


xxii. 


1,5, 


248, 249 




3, 4, 


276 




3, 4, 5, 


249 




6> 


3 


xxiii. 


1, 4, 14, 15, 


94 




14, 


54, 248 




19, 


117 




29, 


248 


xxiv. 


1> 


249 




3, 


246 




24, 


381 


XXV. 


2, 


54 




l > 17 9^ 


7 P. 


xxvi. 


i, 


117 




1,25, 


244 


xxvii. 


10, 


25 


xx viii. 


4, 


394 


xxix. 


1. 


394, 418 


XXX. 


28, 


24 


xxxi. 


3, 


391 




10-12, 


392 




13, 


6 



ii Samuel. 



Chap. 


Verse. 


Page. 


i. 


10, 19, 




303 


ii. 


18, 


46, 


391 


iii. 


26, 




81 


iv. 


12, 




93 


v. 


17, 25, 




121 




20, 




121 


xi. 


21, 




385 


XV. 


30, 32, 


133, 


309 


xvi. 


1, 




309 


xviii. 


18, 


78, 


132 


xx. 14, 


15, 18, 21, 


460, 


461 


xxi. 


14, 




117 


xxiii. 


13, 14, 




250 




14, 




120 




15, 




107 


xxiv. 


16, 18, 25, 


190 




l Kings. 






L 


3, 




394 








293 




33, 38, 




136 


iv. 


26, 




201 


v. 


18, 




185 


vii. 


46, 




292 


viii. 


4, 




330 


xi. 


7, 




161 


xvi. 


24, 




381 


xvii. 


1, 




375 




3, 




307 


xx. 


26-30, 




418 


xxi. 


2, 


92, 


393 



ii Kings. 



ii. 1, 286 

19, 300 
21, 22, 23, 302 

iv. 8, 394 

vii. 3, 336 

ix. 17-20, 393 

27, 32 

xii. 12, 198 

xv. 29, 460 

xvii. 6, 24, 380 

29, 370 



564 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



ii Kings — continued. 

Chap. Verse. Page, 

xxi. 13, 125, 128 

xxiii. 4, 234, 333 

8, 16 

13, 161 



i Chronicles. 



ii. 


23, 


62 


vi. 


3, 4, 


372 




56, 


62 


vii. 


28, 


62, 471 




29, 


392 


xii. 


18, 23, 


84 


xiv. 


8, 9, 


121 




15, 16, 


121 


xxi. 


25, 


381 




25, 26, 30 


190 


xxii. 


1, 


190 




2, 


198 




2, 14, 


89 


xxviii. 


19, 


191 


xxix. 


3, 


330 




ii Chronicles. 




iii. 


1, 


19J 


iv. 




193 


vii. 


h 


191 


xi. 


6, 


99, 180 




9, 


54 


xii. 


16, 


141 


xvi. 


4, 


461 




14, 


141 


xix. 


4, 


16 


XX. 


7, 


69 




16, 


32 


xxi. 


I, 


141 




20, 


141 


xxvi. 


10, 


301 




23, 


141 


xxviii. 


27, 


141 


XXX. 


5, 


16 


xxxii. 


5, 


201 




30, 


164 




33, 


32, 141 



ii Chronicles — continued. 



Chap. 


Verse. 


Page 


xxxm. 




l t;Q 




9ft 
40, 


1/4 1 


XXXV. 


Q 
6 > 


lift 




XT 

JN EHEMIAH. 




iii. 


15, 


162 


ix. 


4, 


32 


xi. 


1, 


329 




1 Q 

18, 






27, 


11 




30, 


16 




31, 


62 


xii. 


29, 


261 




37, 


32 




JOB. 




XXIV. 


1 Q 

18, 


no 

vi 


XXXV111. 


i 

1> 


zob 




rSALMS. 




IX. 


1 9 


411 


xxviii. 




QQrt 

ooO 


xxxvu. 


^0, 


ob 


xlv. 


A ft 
4, », 


1 ftft 


Ixii. 


Q 


(\A 


lxviii. 


9 


oo 




2b, 




ixix. 


7_9ft 


400 


lxxix. 


1 

l i 


19*; 91fi 


Ixxx. 


ft 1 £ 


58 


lxxxiv. 


b > 


1 91 


lxxxix. 


1 9 


409 


xcix. 


9, 


330 


cii. 


3, 


36 


cvii. 


34, 


59 


cviii. 


8, 


456 


cix. 


23, 


271 


ex. 


3, 


20 


cxix. 


83, 


36 




105, 


264 


cxx. 




36 


exxx. 


h 


158 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



565 



Proverbs. 

Chap. Verse. rage. 

x. 25, 285 

26, 36 

xxvii. 20, 311 

xxx. 19, 106 

ECCLESIASTES. 

i. C, 285 
8, 152 

ii. 5, 99 
6, 97 

x. 19, 140 



Song of Solomon, 





R 

°) 


3ft 


il. 


Q 


1 oo 




Q 
°> 


44 / 




11, Id, 


182 




12 13 






1 7 

* i 


I/O 


iii. 


9, 10, 


100 


iv. 


5, 


447 




6, 


416, 446 




8, 


457, 458 




11, 16, 


101 




12, 97. 


102, 162 




15, 


162 


v. 


1, 


102 




2, 


162 




15, 


415 


vi. 


2,11, 


101 


vii. 


4, 


291 


i 


14, 


447 




Isaiah. 




i. 


7, 


339 




8, 


61 


ii. 


23, 


69 


iii. 


26, 


127 


v. 


1.2, 


63 




•> 


61, 




6, 


44 


vii. 


23, 25, 




viii. 




168; 



Isaiah — continued. 



Chap. 


Verse. 


Page. 


ix. 


3 


19 




18, 


36 


X 


28, 


341, 346 




29 


261 




30, 


342 




32, 


126 


xii. 


3, 


164 




8, 


69 


XV. 


(> 


275 




5. 


32 


xvi. 


4, 


249 




9, 


275 


xvii. 


5, 


122 




13, 


285 


xxi. 


16, 17, 


36 


xxii. 


1,2, 


154 




11, 


168 


xxiv. 


6, 


478 




7, 


57 


xxvi. 


15, 


19 


xxvii. 


13, 


330 


xxviii. 


1, 
* > 


378 




21 


121 


xxix. 


2, 


127 




4, 


128 


XX x. 


13, 


64 




20, 


127 


xxxiii. 


17, 


455 


xl. 


9, 


334 




24, 


285 


xli. 


27, 


258 


xlii. 


u, 


36 


xlvi. 


1, 


341 


xlvii. 


6, 


17 


xlviii. 


o 


o£J 


ii 


^> 


l n r. 
1UO 


Iii. 


i, 


329 


lviii. 


ii, 


7 


Ix. 


ii, 


140 


lxii. 


4, 


17 


lxv. 


5> 


36 




Jeremiah. 




i. 


U, 12, 


150 




15, 


126 



566 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



Jeremiah — continued. 



Chap. 


Verse. 


Page. 


Chap. 


v. 


a 

b ) 


319 


vii. 




10, 


126 


ix. 


Vll. 


12, 


362 




ix. 


11, 


125, 199 




X. 


17, 


325 






20, 


15 


viii. 


xi. 


15, 


329 


X. 


xiii. 


19, 24, 


116 


xiii. 


xxii. 


28, 


92 




xxix. 


5, 


105 


xiv. 


xxxi. 


5, 


382 






15, 


178 






40, 


222 




xxxvi. 


2, 4, 27, 


373 




xlviii. 


5, 


32 






45, 


275 




xlix. 


19, 


291 




L 


44, 


291 




Ji. 


26, 


16 






Lamentations. 




v. 








vi. 


ii. 


1, 


172 






7-11, 


144 


vii. 








viii. 




H. L, fc. i\. 1 K Li . 




ix. 


1. 


4, 


286 




vii. 


10, 


150 


ii. 


XV. 


2-5, 


80 


XXV. 


9, 


275 




xxvi. 


6, 8, 


471 






14, 


471 




xxvii. 


28, 


470 


j 


xxxiii. 


28, 29, 


16 






30, 


329 




xxxiv. 


29, 


333 


... 
111. 


xxxv. 


3, 


16 


v. 


xxxvi. 


34, 35, 


105 


vi. 


xxxvii. 


2, 


16 


xlii. 


13, 


330 




xlvii. 


8, 9, 


283 


1 




U, 


278 


; * 


xlviii. 


6-12, 


304 


111 



Daniel. 




Verse 


"age. 






94 


^9Q 


Hosea. 




8, 


92 


A 
4 , 




Q 
6 ) 


DO 


1 O, 


^ftO 




462 


Joel. 




1 n_i 7 




1 7 




1 ft 


9ftfi 
400 


1 Q 


1 fi 
1 u 


Amos. 




5, 


12 


1, 


380 


12, 


106 


9, 


12 


11, 14, 


13 


14, 


105 


O ONAH. 






9^1 


MlCAH. 




5-7, 


:<83 


6, 


215 


7, 


381 


12, 125, 142 


, 199 


7, 


20 


5, 


287 



Zephaniah. 

13, 16 
3, 319 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



Zechariati. 



Luke — continued. 



1. 

v. 
vi. 

viii. 
ix. 

xii. 
xiv. 



Chap. 


Verse. 


Page. 


Chap. 


Verse. 


ii. 


i% 


331 


ii. 


8, 


xi. 


2, 


57 




17, 18 


xiv. 


4, 


257 




32, 








iv. 


40, 








v. 


16, 




Matthew. 




viii. 


33, 








ix. 


10, 


ii. 


18, 


178 




12, 


iii. 


I, 


94 


X. 


30, 




11, 


186 




38, 


iv. 


5, 


329 


xvii. 


12, 


v. 




406 






vi. 


28, 30, 


46 








34, 


40 




John. 


viii. 


32, 


417 






xi. 


7, 


293 


i. 


27, 




28, 


427 




44, 


xiv. 


15, 


416 


iv. 


10, 




23, 


416 




20, 


xvi. 


13, 408,448,453 


y 


9 


xvii, 


24, 


408, 256 


vii. 


37, 


xxi. 


33, 


61 


X. 


4, 


xxii. 


31, 32, 


75 


xi. 


1, 


xxiv. 


32, 


302 




2, 


xxvi. 


7, 


139 




31, 




36, 


129 


XV. 


6, 


xxvii. 


53, 


330 


xviii. 


1, 








xix. 


5, 




Mark. 






Acts. 



32, 
13, 
36, 
46, 
27, 
30, 
3 

1, 

3, 



Luke. 



39, 65, 
78, 79, 



173 
417 
416 
416 
408, 453 
456 
456 
61 
139 



29 
109 



l. 

vii. 
xiii. 
xxi. 

xxvii. 



xi. 
xiv. 



18, 19, 
16, 

8, 
15, 
17, 

4, 

6 > 

Romans. 

15, 
26, 
2, 



Page. 

112, 179 
113 
109 
173 
416 
417 

416, 417 
416 
305 
139 
336 



186 
417 
367 
374 
163 
164 
37 
139 
139 
76 
80 
129 
334 



148,149 
90 
209 
341 
174 
149 
148 



480 

208 
153 



568 



SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 



Hebrews. 



Chap. Verse. Page, 

x. 19, 429 

ii Peter. 

u. 8, 79 



HEIGHTS IN 

Hermon (Great), . 10,000 
Hebron, . . .2,800 

Sinjil, . . . 2,685 
Nebi-Samuel, . . 2,649 

Bethlehem, . . 2,500 
Gerizim, . . . 2,500 

Mount of Olives, . 2,396 
Jerusalem, ... . 2,200 

Dhahariyah, . . 2,174 
Hermon (Little), . . 1,862 

Gilboa, . . . 1,300 



Revelations. 
Chap. Verse. Page. 



ix. 


7, 


271 


xi. 


•> 


330 


XV. 


15. 


19 


xxi. 


2, 


330 




25, 


140 


xxii. 


19, 


330 




20, 


447 



PALESTINE. 

Beersheba, . . . 1,100 

Marsaba, . . 702 

Tell-el-Kadi, . . 550 

Carmel, . . . 490 

Jenin, . . . 350 

BELOW THE SEA LEVEL. 

Dead Sea, . . 1,312 

Sea of Galilee, . . 652 

Waters of Merom, . 60 



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